Japan taps Kuroda for BoJ post

TOKYO: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe nominated an advocate of aggressive policy action to head the Bank of Japan, challenging the opposition to back his push for radical action as officials warned that a nascent economic upturn could easily be derailed.
By choosing Asian Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda to take over at the central bank, Abe is looking to deliver on an election pledge of overhauling monetary policy to revive the economy after nearly two decades of mild deflation and lackluster growth.
“The new BoJ needs to accelerate its pace of asset accumulation and extend the maturities of government debt that it is buying,” said Masayuki Kichikawa, chief Japan economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
“By strengthening monetary easing, the BoJ will be able to stabilize the yen exchange rate. Then we will begin to see some positive impact on consumer prices from next year.”
Academic Kikuo Iwata, who supports unconventional monetary policy, and BoJ official Hiroshi Nakaso, who has hands-on knowledge of the central bank’s inner workings, were nominated as BoJ deputy governors yesterday.
Abe has already successfully pushed for changes at the central bank, which last month doubled its inflation target to 2 percent and agreed to an open-ended asset buying program from 2014, and the new leadership team is expected to push for even more aggressive action.
The nominations were no surprise to investors, having been well flagged recently, and there was little market reaction.
The three men need to be approved by both houses of parliament, which will vet them in coming days. Abe does not have a majority in the upper house, and so needs opposition support for his BoJ picks to take office next month.
The head of the opposition Democratic Party, Banri Kaieda, said his party could make a final decision on the nominees on March 15 or March 18.
Soon after the nominations were announced, the challenge facing the three was laid out as the finance minister and a BoJ board member both said that despite positive signs, a recovery in the world’s third-largest economy was by no means certain.
Japan’s economy has contracted for the past three quarters, but there have been some signs of life in recent data, including consecutive rises in factory output and signs of a pick-up in the country’s export engine.
A major factor behind hopes of the recovery has been the sharp fall in the yen against the dollar to near three-year lows this month, which was driven by Abe’s promises of radical fiscal and monetary stimulus.
However, a 3 percent jump in the yen on Monday, as worries about Italy’s election drove investors back to the safe haven of the Japanese currency, has alarmed policymakers who are concerned about the fragility of the economic recovery.
Finance Minister Taro Aso said he was keeping a close eye on the yen, and a BoJ board member said there was uncertainty that the economy would make a full-fledged recovery.
“We will continue to monitor currency moves and make sure the economy recovers by encouraging private investment, jobs growth and an expansion in wages,” Aso told parliament.
A weaker yen benefits Japan as it makes exports more competitive and eases deflation by pushing up import prices, although it does weaken its trade and current account balances.
BoJ board member Takahide Kiuchi told business leaders that future stimulus would most likely be through expanding the BOJ’s current asset-buying and lending program, although other measures being proposed in markets, such as buying riskier assets, could be examined.
“We will strive to achieve our new target, including through taking additional easing steps boldly when necessary,” said Kiuchi, who was one of two board members to vote against adopting the 2 percent inflation target last month.