BlockBeats News, March 26th – The Bank of Japan announced that it will start releasing monthly data to assess core CPI starting this month. The relevant data will be published under the name “Core CPI Reference Index” and will be announced at 14:00 on the second business day after the official CPI release in Japan.
Analyst Justin Low from Investinglive stated that in the context of the Bank of Japan’s previous actions, the bank had faced many doubts due to the confusion in Japan’s inflation data. Japan’s February core CPI annual rate has fallen below the key 2% level, yet the Bank of Japan seems determined to continue its tight monetary policy. The Bank of Japan hopes to present evidence demonstrating that actual underlying inflationary pressures remain strong. The bank believes that measures such as energy subsidies implemented by the Japanese government have artificially depressed the CPI data. Therefore, the “Core CPI Reference Index” now released by the Bank of Japan will provide a “denoised” interpretation of the inflation figures. This is more to prove to the public and the market that they are still on the right track in terms of monetary policy. If there is anything different to mention, this can also be interpreted as a mild resistance from the Bank of Japan to the government’s wishes, as Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio hopes the Bank of Japan will keep the current interest rates unchanged.
