The Bank of Japan will hold a monetary policy meeting for two days starting from the 22nd.
The Bank of Japan has a stance of changing policy if it is expected to achieve the 2% price stability target in conjunction with wage increases, and the market is paying attention to the timing, but there are uncertainties such as the movement of small and medium-sized enterprises to raise wages. The focus is on how to indicate the direction of policy, while the issue of gender remains.
The consumer price index has remained above 2% for 1 year and 9 months in a row until last month, and financial markets are paying close attention to the timing of the Bank of Japan's lifting of its negative interest rate policy.
In an interview with NHK last month, Governor Ueda cited two points as key points in deciding whether to change policy: the trend in wage increases during the spring labor unions and the impact of past wage increases on prices.
Major companies have been announcing wage increases one after another in the run-up to the spring labor union, but at the Bank of Japan's branch manager meeting this month, the momentum for wage increases has been building earlier than last year, but the spread and level of wage increases are increasing mainly among small and medium-sized enterprises. It was also reported that there is a high level of uncertainty.
Against this backdrop, the focus of this Monetary Policy Meeting will be how the Bank of Japan will indicate its policy direction in light of recent trends in wage increases.
The meeting is also expected to discuss the economic impact of the Noto Peninsula earthquake.
On the other hand, this time, the ``Outlook Report'' will be released, showing the price outlook for the next three years.
While the prices of imports such as crude oil are falling, the government's reduction in electricity and gas burden reduction measures and the fixed tax cut that will be implemented from June are expected to push up prices, so it will be interesting to see how these factors are reflected in prices.