According to Japan's Kyodo news agency learned on the 10th, the Bank of Japan has begun to explore the 2023 consumer price growth forecast from the July forecast of 2.5% year-on-year rise to nearly 3%, will reflect more than the Bank of Japan's expected corporate continued price increases, as well as the recent rise in crude oil prices.
At the monetary policy meeting to be held on April 30 and 31, the official decision will be made and the Economic and Price Outlook report, which will summarize economic trends and price outlook, will be released.
In July, in response to rising prices and interest rates, the Bank of Japan raised the ceiling on interest rates from 0.5% to 1% through its long-term interest rate operation, the core of its massive easing policy. The meeting will discuss the appropriateness of easing policy in light of price expectations.
The report mentioned that the Bank of Japan's September business short-term economic Observation Survey (Tankan) released on the 2nd showed that the proportion of companies that answered that sales prices were "rising" minus the proportion of "falling" was at a high index, including positive 32 for large manufacturing companies and positive 27 for non-manufacturing companies.
Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications announced in August the national consumer price index (excluding fresh food) rose 3.1% year-on-year. Many market participants are forecasting growth of around 2.5% to 3% in 2023.
The Bank of Japan releases its outlook report every three months. In January, the forecast for 2023 was 1.6%, but it was revised up to 1.8% in April and again to 2.5% in July. As the depreciation of the yen has pushed up the price of imported goods since July, many people in the Bank of Japan say that the price increase has exceeded the expectation in July.