(Bloomberg) -- Bank of Japan Board Member Naoki Tamura signaled his desire to gradually keep raising interest rates as the bank further pursues policy normalization after raising rates last week for the first time since 2007. 

“The handling of monetary policy is extremely important from here on for slow but steady progress in normalization to fold back the extraordinarily large-scale monetary easing,” Tamura said Wednesday in a speech to local business leaders in Aomori, northeastern Japan.

The yen weakened after the speech as Tamura reiterated a line from the BOJ’s latest policy statement that financial conditions will stay accommodative for the time being given the outlook for inflation. Still, he is keeping the door open for another move. 

“The continuation of an easy financial environment doesn’t mean there won’t be any more rate hikes at all,” Tamura told reporters after the speech.

Tamura, the leading hawk on the nine-member board, was the first member of the board to speak in public after the bank ended the world’s last negative interest rate on March 19. He indicated that the bank isn’t finished with rate hikes by emphasizing the importance of the function of rates in the economy. 

“The final goal” is to bring up rates to restore their functionality as a way to adjust demand and affect inflation within the framework of the bank’s 2% price target, said Tamura, a former senior executive of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group.

Tamura didn’t drop any clear hints as to the timing for the next potential normalization step. Most of BOJ watchers expect another rate hike by October. 

Some economists consider Tamura’s remarks a leading indicator for the BOJ’s policy thinking, given his past record. In August last year, Tamura indicated the central bank might attain its long sought-goal of reaching 2% inflation by early 2024, boosting speculation over a rate liftoff that wound up happening earlier than many forecast at the time. 

He also called for the need of a broad policy review in December 2022, well before current Governor Kazuo Ueda announced it in April last year.      

(Adds comments from Tamura’s afternoon press conference in 4th paragraph)

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