BUSINESS / Economy

Investors and economists split on whether BOJ will raise rates again

The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo. A survey by Bloomberg indicates a majority of analysts surveyed doesn’t expect another rate hike as a base case, but plenty of others are warning that the BOJ may not be finished. | Bloomberg

By Toru Fujioka, Sumio Ito and Yoshiaki Nohara
Bloomberg

Mar 20, 2024

Now that Japan has increased its interest rates for the first time since 2007, investors and economists are divided over how long it will take before the country's central bank opts for another hike.

Bank of Japan (BOJ) watchers agree that it won’t aggressively raise rates at the pace the U.S. Federal Reserve moved when it was battling inflation.

But the consensus on how far the BOJ will go largely breaks down after that — and Gov. Kazuo Ueda provided enough ammunition for both sides of the argument in a carefully hedged press briefing on Tuesday after ending Japan’s eight-year experiment with negative rates.