BOJ Holds Rates Steady, Ups FY 2025 Growth Outlook

Tokyo, Oct. 30 (Jiji Press)–The Bank of Japan decided Thursday to keep its policy interest rate unchanged while raising its gross domestic product growth outlook for fiscal 2025. At its two-day policy-setting meeting through the day, the BOJ’s Policy Board voted seven to two to maintain the policy of guiding the unsecured overnight call rate to around 0.5 pct. Two board members proposed raising the rate target to 0.75 pct, but this was rejected. In its new quarterly Outlook for Economic Activity and Prices report, adopted at the meeting, the Japanese central bank raised its fiscal 2025 real GDP growth forecast to 0.7 pct from the July estimate of 0.6 pct. Meanwhile, the fiscal 2026 growth projection was kept unchanged at 0.7 pct, and the fiscal 2027 estimate was maintained at 1.0 pct. The inflation forecasts were also left intact, at 2.7 pct for fiscal 2025, 1.8 pct for fiscal 2026 and 2.0 pct for fiscal 2027. “Japan’s economic growth is likely to be modest,” the BOJ said in the report, citing “various risks to the outlook” stemming from “trade and other policies in each jurisdiction.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]