Tokyo: Several Bank of Japan policymakers, at a meeting in March, said there were “positive signs” toward achieving the central bank’s price stability target of 2 pct, minutes of the policy-setting meeting showed Monday.

Reflecting progress in passing on higher raw material costs to service and product prices and efforts to increase wages, mainly among major companies, the policymakers pointed out that the environment surrounding prices “started to change,” according to the minutes.

Meanwhile, one member said that there was “still a long way to go” before concluding that a virtuous cycle between prices and wage emerged in line with efforts to achieve the 2 pct price stability target.

Some members expressed their view that due attention needs to be paid to “the risk of prices rising more than expected.”

A member pointed to the need for the central bank to “persistently continue with monetary easing” in order for “the expectation of a virtuous cycle between prices and wages to turn into conviction.” The BOJ decided to keep its massive monetary easing policy unchanged at the March 9-10 meeting

At the meeting, which was last for Haruhiko Kuroda, whose term as BOJ governor ended on April 8, Japanese government representatives expressed appreciation for Kuroda’s work, saying that he was “committed to sound economic development through the maintenance of price stability.”

JIJI Press