BoJ Wakatabe: Dangers of secular stagnation and Japanification not yet passed

BoJ Deputy Governor Masazumi Wakatabe said, “the mild-inflation regime has not come to an end, and we should say that the potential dangers of secular stagnation and Japanification have not yet passed.”

“When an exogenous shock occurs, there is an adjustment from the old to a new price system. After adjustment, the rising inflation rate is likely to return to the steady-state inflation rate,” he said.

“So the important point is how this rate is affected. Of course, it is possible that cost-push factors will remain, but whether they will push up the steady-state inflation rate is uncertain,” Wakatabe said, adding that it was “well known that cost-push inflation does not last long.”