The Bank of Japan Flunks the Communications Test

The Bank of Japan’s Kazuo Ueda is struggling to get himself across. Two weeks after a contentious newspaper interview in which he seemed to suggest that an end to negative interest rates could come sooner than almost anyone thought, the central bank governor spent much of his post-policy meeting press conference walking back those comments.

The interview, widely seen as an effort by the BOJ to prop up the yen, gave the battered currency relief by appearing to hold out the prospect of a rate hike by the end of December. With challenges multiplying at home and abroad, and the global economy not looking so hot, Ueda is walking a delicate line. He needs to own his words. To do otherwise is to make a rookie mistake. No wonder the yen retreated Friday after the rate decision.