(Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba sought to show he isn’t pressuring the Bank of Japan over interest rate policy, saying that he was aligned with BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda’s view that there was time to assess the situation in markets and the economy before making any changes to rates.
Speaking to reporters late Thursday, Ishiba’s latest comments mark another shift in tone about the BOJ. They suggests Japan’s newest leader is still in the process of judging how best to communicate with markets, and trying to thread the needle between looking like he’s encroaching on the central bank’s independence, and supporting monetary easing ahead of this month’s general election.
Ishiba noted that Ueda had explained in a meeting between the two a day earlier that monetary conditions remain very accommodative and the BOJ had plenty of time to assess the impact of policy before making any adjustments.
“This is also my understanding,” Ishiba said.
Ishiba triggered a sharp yen slide on Wednesday after he said Japan wasn’t ready for higher borrowing costs for the time being following his meeting with Ueda, an unusually direct remark for a prime minister.
Before becoming national leader, Ishiba had expressed support for the BOJ’s policy normalization course in order to help support the weak yen, leading some in the market to assume he would be in favor of continued rate hikes by the central bank.
Ishiba’s predecessor Kishida had also jolted markets in the early days of his tenure, through comments about a capital gains tax. Kishida later walked back those comments to become popular with investors for policies that helped push Japanese stocks to an all-time high.
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