Japan PM Kishida ‘not thinking of shortening’ BOJ Kuroda’s term – FT

(Reuters) -Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is not considering shortening the term of Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda, he told the Financial Times on Tuesday, adding he would continue to “work closely” with the central bank chief.

Kishida also said the BOJ needed to maintain its current policy until wages rise and that companies need to increase pay, according to the newspaper.

The comments from Kishida come as the yen has been sold heavily this year due to the widening gap between U.S. and Japanese interest rates.

Referring to Kuroda’s 10-year tenure which ends in April next year, Kishida said: “At the moment, I am not thinking of shortening his term.”

“I will look ahead to the expected economic conditions of April next year in my deliberations on choosing the right person for the job,” the newspaper quoted Kishida as saying.

The BOJ remains an outlier among a global wave of central banks tightening monetary policy to combat soaring inflation, which has pushed the yen to 24-year lows against the dollar. The yen is down about 21% against the dollar this year.

“It’s hard to put a figure on what level of inflation is appropriate,” Kishida also said. The BOJ has aimed for 2% annual consumer inflation as the target of its monetary policy.

(Reporting by Akriti Sharma in Bengaluru and Kantaro Komiya in Tokyo; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Muralikumar Anantharaman)