BOJ Keeps Policy Unchanged, Ups GDP Growth Outlook

Tokyo, July 31 (Jiji Press)–The Bank of Japan on Friday decided to keep its monetary policy unchanged while raising its gross domestic product growth outlook for fiscal 2026. At its two-day meeting through the day, the BOJ’s Policy Board decided by a vote of eight to one to maintain the policy of guiding the unsecured overnight call rate, Japan’s benchmark short-term policy rate, to around 1 pct. In its new quarterly Outlook for Economic Activity and Prices report, adopted at the meeting, the Japanese central bank raised its growth forecast for the country’s real gross domestic product for fiscal 2026 to 0.6 pct from 0.5 pct shown in the previous report released in late April. The fiscal 2027 growth projection was raised to 0.8 pct from 0.7 pct, while the fiscal 2028 estimate was left intact at 0.8 pct. The BOJ cut the growth estimate for Japan’s core consumer price index in fiscal 2026 to 2.5 pct from 2.8 pct. The CPI growth forecast was raised to 2.4 pct from 2.3 pct for fiscal 2027, while the projection for fiscal 2028 remained unchanged at 2.0 pct. “Japan’s economy has recovered moderately, although some weakness has been seen in part, partly due to the impact of the situation in the Middle East,” the BOJ said in the report. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]