After the European Central Bank's recent dramatic easing of monetary policy, the pressure is on Japan to get more radical. But the Bank of Japan's decision on Tuesday to leave rates unchanged suggests that this time, BOJ Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda is keeping his powder dry after the bank's surprise move in January to adopt a negative interest rate policy.
To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the death of Abenomics are greatly exaggerated. Three years into Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's reflationary program, the transformation of Japan's economic climate is undisputable. In 2015 Japan recorded the highest rate of nominal growth in gross domestic product since 1997 and the proportion of the working age population actually employed is at an all-time high. Pay is starting to respond; hourly wages for part-timers are up 2% on the year, the best increase in recent memory.
