The Bank of Japan's increased confidence in achieving its inflation target is evident The meeting statement shows growing confidence about sustainable inflation in several places, with comments like “firms will continue to raise wages steadily next year”, "the risk of firms’ active wage-setting behaviour being interrupted is expected to be low," and "the mechanism by which both wages and prices rise moderately will be maintained." At the same time, the BoJ emphasised that real interest rates are expected to remain “significantly” negative after the hike and accommodative financial conditions will continue to firmly ... (full story)