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BOJ’s Kuroda Joins Queue of Central Banks Looking Toward Exit

The Bank of Japan gave fresh insight into when it might slow its bond-buying program.

BOJ’s Kuroda Joins Queue of Central Banks Looking Toward Exit
Haruhiko Kuroda, governor of the Bank of Japan (BOJ), attends a meeting hosted by Kyodo News in Tokyo, Japan (Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg)  

(Bloomberg) -- The end of the easy money era which spanned the global economy for the last decade came into even sharper focus on Friday as the Bank of Japan gave fresh insight into when it might slow its bond-buying program.

Governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s remarks that the central bank will start thinking about how to complete its unprecedented monetary stimulus around the fiscal year starting April 2019 was the clearest signal yet that a conclusion might be in sight to emergency support for the Japanese economy.

BOJ’s Kuroda Joins Queue of Central Banks Looking Toward Exit

While Kuroda’s statement in response to questions from lawmakers was in some ways stating the obvious -- the BOJ forecasts inflation to reach its 2 percent target in fiscal 2019 -- the significance is that he’s put down a marker in public that he can be held to.

"It’s notable how over the past few weeks Kuroda has been forced into talking more specifically about the exit," said Izumi Devalier, head of Japan economics at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. "A year and a half ago he would have shut down the discussion altogether with the blanket ‘it’s too early to talk about it’ statement."

That means the last of the big central banks is finally thinking out loud about policy normalization or how to begin the process of unwinding years of asset purchases and ultra-low interest rates that were used to stoke growth after the 2008 financial crisis sparked the worst global recession in decades.

BOJ’s Kuroda Joins Queue of Central Banks Looking Toward Exit

The Federal Reserve, Bank of Canada and Bank of England have already raised interest rates and may do so again soon, while the European Central Bank is debating how soon to end its own bond-buying. China’s central bank is sticking to what it describes as neutral policy settings and is ratcheting up money market rates to cool the pace of borrowing. Bloomberg Economics estimates net asset purchases by the main central banks will dwindle to around zero around the start of 2019.

"Central banks worldwide are gradually normalizing monetary policy as growth
and inflation risks return," said Chua Hak Bin, a senior economist at Maybank Kim Eng Research in Singapore. "The Bank of Japan is preparing the markets for an eventual exit from its accommodative monetary policy."

Traders leaped on Kuroda’s remarks. The yen surged while yields on Japanese sovereign debt climbed across the curve. The Nikkei 225 Index closed 2.5 percent lower and the Topix Index fell 1.8 percent.

Such moves suggest just how vigilant investors are to talk of a turn by policy makers. Stocks have fallen and bonds have risen recently amid concern that synchronized global growth, falling unemployment and signs of accelerating inflation would prompt central banks to become more hawkish.

Earlier this week, new Fed Chairman Jerome Powell indicated U.S. policy makers may raise rates this year by more than the three times they have been anticipating.

Read Bloomberg Economics reaction to Kuroda

To be sure, Kuroda remains doggedly committed to powerful stimulus until inflation hits 2 percent and on Friday he, again, ruled out any consideration of an exit before then. Many in the market believe him.

"Hearing Governor Kuroda talk about the policy board debating exit is obviously bracing for markets and underlines the communication challenge the BOJ faces," said David Fernandez, chief Asia-Pacific economist at Barclays Plc. "However, he simply said that the exit debate would happen in fiscal 2019 because the policy board forecasts that they will have reached the 2 percent target by then."

--With assistance from Connor Cislo and Yuko Takeo

To contact the reporters on this story: Enda Curran in Hong Kong at ecurran8@bloomberg.net, Toru Fujioka in Tokyo at tfujioka1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Malcolm Scott at mscott23@bloomberg.net, Brett Miller, James Mayger

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.