Japan's price expert predicts BOJ shift to more aggressive inflation fighting posture

TOKYO, July 30 : The Bank of Japan may shift to an inflation fighting posture from inflation tolerance as soon as December, which would mean an acceleration in rate hikes, said Tsutomu Watanabe, a former central bank official known as an expert on price trends.Japan is experiencing a third wave of inflation caused by the Middle East conflict, following the first wave triggered by the Ukraine war, and a second one driven by domestic wage hikes and rising rice costs, he said.The third wave will likely be more modest than the past two with consumer inflation excluding fresh food and fuel peaking near 3 per cent around March next year, before slowing towards the BOJ's 2 per cent target, Watanabe, emeritus economics professor at the University of Tokyo, said in an interview on Wednesday."But th