By Leika Kihara
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) – Japan’s top currency diplomat, Atsushi Mimura, said on Wednesday he did not see any disparity between recent yen moves and a slew of positive economic data that has heightened expectations of a near-term interest rate hike.
Japan’s fourth-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) data and consumer inflation data for January both showed the economy was in “fairly good shape,” Mimura told reporters, when asked about the yen’s recent rises.
Domestic import prices are also rising on a year-on-year basis due to exchange-rate factors, he added.
“The Bank of Japan (BOJ) is issuing various messages on its monetary policy outlook, taking into account such economic data,” Mimura said on the sidelines of a Group of 20 finance leaders’ meeting in Cape Town.
“I don’t see any disparity” between the BOJ’s messages and recent yen moves, he added.
The BOJ ended a decade-long massive stimulus last year and raised its short-term interest rate to 0.5% from 0.25% in January on the view that Japan was on the cusp of sustainably achieving its 2% inflation target.
BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda has said the central bank will keep raising interest rates if Japan continues to make progress in durably achieving 2% inflation backed by solid wage growth and domestic demand.
(Reporting by Leika Kihara; Writing by Tannur Anders; Editing by Alexander Winning and Paul Simao)
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