TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s newly appointed economy minister, Ryosei Akazawa, said on Wednesday that it’s not necessarily true that Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is positive about further interest rate hikes by the Bank of Japan (BOJ).
“Our top priority is to ensure that Japan completely exit from deflation,” said Akazawa, a close ally of Ishiba, adding that it would take some time. “Ishiba’s (previous) comments on the need for monetary policy normalization have various conditions attached.”
(Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Kim Coghill)
