By Kentaro Sugiyama
TOKYO (Reuters) -The head of Japan's leading business lobby said on Monday the central bank was highly likely to normalise its ultra-loose monetary policy in the near future amid heightening momentum for wage hikes.
"There is greater momentum for wage hikes at this year's spring wage negotiations compared with last year," Masakazu Tokura, chairman of business lobby Keidanren, told a news conference, adding that he was hopeful that pay increases will spread not just among big firms but their smaller counterparts.
He also said he saw a greater chance that Japan will achieve the central bank's 2% inflation target.
"There's a high chance the BOJ will shift toward policy normalisation in the not so distant future," Tokura said, adding that he was not sure whether such a move would come in March.
(Reporting by Kentaro Sugiyama; Writing by Rocky Swift and Leika Kihara; Editing by Jamie Freed and Christopher Cushing)
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