Investing.com - Bank of Japan board members were deeply divided over the cost of adding a potentially contradictory negative interest rate policy to the
bank's easing program, a summary of opinions at their Jan. 28-29 meeting released Monday showed.
Five members led by Governor Haruhiko Kuroda against four naysayers argued that it is appropriate for the BoJ to reinforce its aggressive easing and make more policy options available by adopting a negative interest rate policy, an idea Kuroda had repeatedly rejected as necessary for Japan until 10 days before the January meeting.
"Now is the defining moment for Japan's economy to maintain momentum so as not to halt the virtuous cycle. The bank should reinforce QQE and increase available options for further easing in the future by implementing additional measures in order to sustain credibility for monetary policy," the summary said.
"QQE with a negative interest rate will enable the bank to demonstrate that there is plenty of room for pursuing additional easing in terms of three dimensions: quantity, quality, and the interest rate," the summary added.