Central Banks
BOJ Didn’t See July Hike as Shift That Would Roil Global Markets
- Neutral interest rate should be at least 1%, one member says
- Stocks saw worst crash since 1987, yen soared after meeting
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A summary of opinions from the Bank of Japan’s July 31 meeting showed officials expected monetary policy to remain accommodative even after they hiked interest rates, suggesting they didn’t expect the move to be big enough to disrupt global markets.
At that meeting, the central bank raised its benchmark interest rate to 0.25% while also unveiling plans to halve the pace of its monthly bond buying by the first quarter of 2026. Governor Kazuo Ueda said after the meeting that the BOJ will raise the rate further if growth and inflation trends develop in line with its forecasts, which struck some analysts as hawkish.