By Leika Kihara
TOKYO (Reuters) -Bank of Japan board members debated the feasibility of raising interest rates in the near term, with one suggesting the timing may be appropriate, a summary of opinions at the central bank’s September policy meeting showed on Tuesday.
“Judging solely from the perspective of Japan’s economic conditions, it may be time to consider raising the policy interest rate again, given that it has been more than six months since the last rate hike,” one opinion was quoted as saying.
With uncertainty over U.S. tariffs and other external headwinds receding, the BOJ has scope to raise Japan’s real interest rate that remains low by global standards, another opinion said.
Some, however, called for caution. One member said it would not be too late to raise rates after assessing “a little more hard data” as Japan’s domestic demand tends to be vulnerable to external shocks, the summary showed.
At the September 18-19 meeting, the BOJ kept interest rates steady at 0.5%, but two of the nine board members dissented and instead unsuccessfully called for a hike to 0.75%.
(Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Shri Navaratnam)
