Japan’s Suzuki: It's goal of government to achieve pace of wage rises higher than that of inflation

Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said on Wednesday that “it's the goal of the government to achieve the pace of wage rises higher than that of inflation.”

Additional comments

Govt will debate fate of BoJ-govt joint statement with new BoJ governor, so premature to comment on specifics.

Govt, BoJ share view achieving wage hikes important.

Current joint statement stipulates BoJ goal of achieving price rises accompanied by wage hike.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said that they “hope the move of wage hikes among big companies would influence small, mid-sized and regional firms.”

Market reaction

USD/JPY is down to testing the 134.00 level once again, tracking the renewed weakness in the US Dollar, despite firmer US Treasury bond yields. The pair is shedding 0.12% on the day to trade at 134.07, as of writing.