Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said greater certainty about achieving the inflation rate target of 2 percent would be needed before any decision is made on raising interest rates. “The possibility of achieving the BOJ's long-awaited target will further increase as wage hikes (from the recently completed "shunto" spring labor offensive) are reflected in higher consumer prices from summer through autumn,” Ueda said in an exclusive interview with The Asahi Shimbun on April 3. In March, the BOJ changed course after about 11 years of an ultra-loose monetary policy and ended its negative interest rate policy that had ... (full story)