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Apr 21, 2024 | 
eastasiaforum.org | Ashley J Tellis |Jenny D Balboa |Masahiko Takeda |Alicia Garcia-Herrero
Ever since independence in 1947, India’s leaders imagined that the country would become a great power — it possessed a storied civilisation, a large landmass and population and epitomised a successful experiment in liberal democracy. But becoming a great power required that its large population become much more productive and the country at large approach the global technological frontier.
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Apr 14, 2024 | 
eastasiaforum.org | Masahiko Takeda |Ayaka Hiraki |Yasuo Takao |Richard Katz
Until recently the Japanese yen was a safe haven currency. When shocks like Brexit hit the global market, Japanese investors — the apocryphal Mrs Watanabe retail investors — brought their savings back to Japan. When there was global uncertainty, the yen strengthened, making Japanese exports less competitive. That was despite three decades of low economic growth and structural headwinds like a shrinking and ageing population. The yen is now the weakest it’s been against the US dollar since 1990.
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Apr 14, 2024 | 
eastasiaforum.org | Masahiko Takeda |Ayaka Hiraki |Yasuo Takao |Richard Katz
Last month, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) took its first step in the ‘normalisation’ of monetary policy. It raised the Bank’s short-term policy interest rate from negative 0.1 per cent to 0–0.1 per cent and ceased most of its unconventional quantitative and qualitative easing (QQE) measures. Lifting interest rates even by a miniscule 10 basis points certainly heralded a new era in Japanese monetary policy, as policy shifted in the direction of tightening credit for the first time in seventeen years.
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Jan 2, 2024 | 
asiatimes.com | Masahiko Takeda
The Japanese economy in 2023 had two distinct features. Macroeconomic indicators, such as GDP and employment, were broadly in good shape. But economic trends that are unsustainable kept worsening, raising concerns about Japan’s future economic stability. Japan’s real GDP growth in 2023 was slightly above 1% – modest, but not bad given potential growth estimated at below 1%.
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Dec 31, 2023 | 
news.nestia.com | Masahiko Takeda
Author: Masahiko Takeda, ANUThe Japanese economy in 2023 had two distinct features. Macroeconomic indicators, such as GDP and employment, were broadly in good shape. But economic trends that are unsustainable kept worsening, raising concerns about Japan’s future economic stability. ……
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Dec 31, 2023 | 
eastasiaforum.org | Masahiko Takeda |Allison Alexy |Yiping Huang |Emma Whitmyer
Author: Masahiko Takeda, ANUThe Japanese economy in 2023 had two distinct features. Macroeconomic indicators, such as GDP and employment, were broadly in good shape. But economic trends that are unsustainable kept worsening, raising concerns about Japan’s future economic stability. Japan’s real GDP growth in 2023 was slightly above 1 per cent — modest, but not bad given potential growth estimated at below 1 per cent.
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Oct 10, 2023 | 
bangladeshpost.net | Masahiko Takeda
In August 2021, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) increased its allocation of special drawing rights (SDRs) to member countries by 456 billion units, equivalent to about US$650 billion. This increase pushed the total SDRs to SDR 661 billion — close to US$1 trillion. SDRs function as a universally accepted international reserve asset that can be exchanged with hard currencies and used outside of the IMF for different purposes.
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Oct 9, 2023 | 
news.nestia.com | Masahiko Takeda
Author: Masahiko Takeda, ANUIn August 2021, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) increased its allocation of special drawing rights (SDRs) to member countries by 456 billion units, equivalent to about US$650 billion. This increase pushed the total SDRs to SDR 661 billion — close to US$1 trillion. SDRs function as a universally accepted international reserve asset that can be exchanged with hard currencies and used outside of the IMF for different purposes.
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Oct 9, 2023 | 
eastasiaforum.org | Masahiko Takeda |Allison Alexy |Ying-kit Chan |Kazimier Lim
Author: Masahiko Takeda, ANUIn August 2021, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) increased its allocation of special drawing rights (SDRs) to member countries by 456 billion units, equivalent to about US$650 billion. This increase pushed the total SDRs to SDR 661 billion — close to US$1 trillion. SDRs function as a universally accepted international reserve asset that can be exchanged with hard currencies and used outside of the IMF for different purposes.
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Apr 9, 2023 | 
afr.com | Masahiko Takeda
Yet, there are useful adjustments that the BoJ can make. The first is yield curve control. This policy extends the BoJ’s tight control of interest rates at close to zero, up to 10 years of maturity, through the purchase of Japanese government bonds. Yield curve control worked fine while inflation was nowhere in sight and there was no pressure in the market to push up long-term interest rates.
