Former Japanese Ministry of Finance Official: Bank of Japan Should Raise Interest Rates at Every Meeting

TechFlow news, August 17, Takehiko Nakao, former Vice Minister of Finance of Japan and President of the Asian Development Bank, stated on Monday that the Bank of Japan should raise interest rates at every policy meeting, with the goal of raising the benchmark interest rate to above 2% to narrow the Japan-U.S. interest rate differential and alleviate pressure on yen depreciation. He said that even though Japan has raised the policy interest rate to 1%, the real interest rate remains negative, while real interest rates in other countries are positive. He believes that with an inflation rate of around 2%, it is not uncommon for Japan's policy interest rate to reach 2.25% or 2.5%. (Jin10)