INTERVIEW: BOJ Missed Key Opportunity to Reverse Policy in 2014

   Tokyo, Jan. 29 (Jiji Press)--The Bank of Japan missed a key opportunity to reverse its aggressive monetary easing at a policy-setting meeting in October 2014, former BOJ policymaker Takahide Kiuchi said in a recent interview.
   "The side effects grow if (aggressive easing) is continued unnecessarily for a long time," said Kiuchi, executive economist at Nomura Research Institute Ltd. "(The meeting) was a key turning point."
   Kiuchi, then a member of the central bank's Policy Board, voted against the massive expansion of the BOJ's quantitative and qualitative easing, featuring vigorous purchases of government bonds and other assets, that was decided at the meeting Oct. 31, 2014.
   "Prices of goods had been rising until the first half of 2014, but this was largely due to the weak yen and high crude oil prices," he said. "It was not the result of the monetary easing, and prices fell after the yen's depreciation ran its course."
   "I thought the reason prices didn't rise as much as expected after a year and a half was because the policy was ineffective," he continued, suggesting that the quantitative and qualitative easing policy, which began in April 2013, only managed to lower long-term interest rates slightly.

(2025/01/29-22:06)

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