BOJ Keeps Policy Unchanged; Timing of Next Rate Hike in Focus

Tokyo, Oct. 30 (Jiji Press)--The Bank of Japan kept its policy interest rate unchanged Thursday as it hopes to spend some more time assessing the impact of the U.S. high tariff policy, while raising its outlook for Japan's gross domestic product growth for fiscal 2025.

Toward the start of next year's "shunto" labor-management wage negotiations, attention is being paid to when the central bank will implement an additional rate hike.

The BOJ maintained the policy status quo for the sixth consecutive policy-setting meeting.

At the two-day policy meeting through the day, the BOJ's Policy Board voted seven to two to continue guiding the unsecured overnight call rate to around 0.5 pct. Two members, Hajime Takata and Naoki Tamura, proposed raising the target to around 0.75 pct, as they did at the previous meeting in September, but this was voted down.

At a press conference later in the day, BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda said that the central bank wants to gather more information on how the initial momentum of the 2026 shunto will be before deciding to raise the policy rate.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]