Japan: BoJ to stay on hold – Standard Chartered

Japan is scheduled to release March employment data and the Bank of Japan (BoJ) is set to announce its monetary policy decision on 28 April. Economists at Standard Chartered Bank shared their forecast. 

Key quotes

“We expect job market data to have worsened as coronavirus measures likely impacted the services and tourism sectors. However, we believe Japan has not yet seen the worst.” 

We expect BoJ to maintain the policy balance rate at -0.1%. We see limited room for a base rate cut; however, the central bank will likely continue to expand QE to inject liquidity into the market even as the government has announced a JPY 117tn emergency stimulus package.”

“We think the BoJ will undertake further monetary easing if fiscal policy requires a further QE boost.”