BOJ Summary of Opinions: Worried of risk uncertainty over Ukraine developments

The BOJ Summary of Opinions at the Monetary Policy Meeting on March 17 and 18, 2022, have been released as follows:

• Rising inflation could weigh on overseas economic growth.
• Worried of risk uncertainty over Ukraine developments could weigh on japan's economy.
• Rising raw material and food costs, geopolitical risks could inflict strong downward pressure on economy.
• Japan's consumer inflation likely to accelerate clearly from April, may move around 2% for some time.
• Inflationary pressure to heighten on improvements in the output gap, rising inflation expectations.
• Consumer inflation likely to hover around 2% in 1st half of fiscal 2022 but may undershoot if commodity prices turn down.
• More companies appear to be passing on higher costs to consumers.
• Surging imported raw material costs unlikely to lead to sustained rise in consumer inflation.
• BoJ must maintain monetary easing as japan unlikely to see inflation continuously exceed 2%.
• BoJ must focus not on fx, commodity price moves themselves, but how they could affect the economy, prices.
• BoJ must respond flexibly without hesitation if the achievement of 2% inflation comes under threat as rising raw material prices could hurt the economy, prices.
• Important to think of various possibilities and how to respond with monetary policy, taking into account recent changes in economic, price developments.

About the Summary of Opinions

This report includes the BOJ's projection for inflation and economic growth. It is scheduled 8 times per year, about 10 days after the Monetary Policy Statement is released.