TOKYO, April 7 (IANS) — The Japanese government on Friday formally appointed economist Kazuo Ueda as the new governor of the Bank of Japan (BOJ), the first change in the central bank’s leadership in 10 years.
Haruhiko Kuroda, 71, a former member of the Bank of Japan’s policy board approved by parliament on March 10, will succeed Haruhiko Kuroda whose 10-year term ends on April 8, according to Xinhua.
Ueda, who will take over the central bank’s presidency for five years, will be tasked with guiding its policy to achieve the bank’s long-term goal of achieving a 2 percent inflation target in a stable manner.
Ueda, who was instrumental in introducing the Bank of Japan’s zero interest rate policy and quantitative easing measures, has indicated that he plans to stick with the central bank’s massive monetary easing program to prop up the country’s largely sluggish economy, though the program has come under fire for prompting purchases. huge amount of government bonds.
The Shizuoka Prefecture-born academic with a Ph.D. from MIT said he believes the current inflationary pressure is mostly “cost-push” and is attributed to higher import prices.
He said the cost push factors are temporary and will eventually abate, with inflation here falling below 2 percent later this year.
However, the beliefs of the former Kyoritsu Women’s University professor are at odds with that of US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who has advocated higher and faster interest rate hikes due to persistently high inflation.
Ueda will be joined by two new deputy governors of the Bank of Japan, Ryuzo Himeno, a former commissioner of the Financial Services Agency, and Shinichi Uchida, an executive director at the central bank, who were previously approved by Parliament.
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