Bank of Japan officials see weakness in consumer spending complicating their decision over whether to raise interest rates at a policy meeting next week, according to people familiar with the matter.
Some officials take the view that skipping a rate hike in July is an option to provide more time to examine incoming data to confirm if consumer spending will pick up as expected, the people said. Some of them hold the position that the BOJ should avoid giving the impression of being overly hawkish, they said.
At the same time, other officials are open to raising rates at the July meeting given that inflation remains broadly in line with forecasts, the people added. They assess the BOJ’s policy rate range of 0 to 0.1% to be very low and see a risk of missing an opportunity to hike rates given a lot of uncertainties going forward, the people said.