TOKYO, Aug 23 (AFP): Japan's central bank today left its super-low interest rates unchanged for a sixth straight month, keeping its powder dry as global markets try to recover from their recent mauling.
The Bank of Japan's (BoJ) policy board voted 8-1 to maintain the benchmark lending rate at 0.5 per cent at the end of a two-day meeting, a BoJ statement said.
Until recently markets had been betting on an August rate hike but plunges in global share prices and a sharp appreciation of the yen prompted analysts to push back their forecasts for when Japanese interest rates will next go up.
BoJ governor Toshihiko Fukui has made clear his desire to wean the world's second-largest economy off the central bank's emergency, anti-deflation measures before he steps down early next year.
But some analysts now doubt whether the BoJ will hike rates again this year as the yen's spike threatens to put the brakes on exports and reduce the price of imports, pushing back prospects of a return to inflation.
Many market players, however, believe a rate hike is still possible by the year end.
BoJ stands pat as markets lick wounds
FE Team | Published: August 24, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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