⁍ Bank of Japan Deputy Governor Masazumi Wakatabe said the central bank may need to agree on a new joint statement with the government.

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⁍ Under a joint statement in 2013, the BOJ agreed to hold itself responsible for achieving its 2% inflation target.

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– Japan’s economy is in need of a “proper division of labor,” a Bank of Japan official said yesterday, and the central bank may need to agree on a new joint statement with the government to clarify that division. Masazumi Wakatabe, deputy governor at the central bank, said that a 2013 joint statement between the bank and the government was “rather interesting and useful in ensuring a proper division of labor,” Reuters reports. “It may be necessary for the central bank and government to agree on a 2013 joint statement-like arrangement to tackle the (COVID-19) crisis and secure a proper division of labor,” he said. Wakatabe said the BOJ has “already set up a whole bunch of tools” that it can expand if need be, but “we have to be innovative whenever we think about engaging on monetary policy.”