Japan's Central Bank Maintains Rates Amid Hawkish Outlook

On April 28, according to Jin10, Marcel Thieliant, Head of Asia Economics at Capital Economics, stated that despite the Bank of Japan keeping interest rates unchanged, its outlook report leans hawkish. Thieliant maintains his forecast that the Bank of Japan will raise rates in June. He added that three members voted in favor of a rate hike, marking the largest dissent since the negative interest rate policy was implemented in 2016. While it was not surprising that consistently hawkish members Takata Hajime and Tamura Naoki opposed, Junko Nakagawa joined the dissenting camp for the first time.