Bank of Japan Maintains Base Rate at 0.5%... Sixth Consecutive Freeze

Bank of Japan [Yonhap News Agency file photo. Reproduction and database prohibited]

The Bank of Japan, Japan's central bank, froze its base interest rate at "around 0.5%" on the 30th, as anticipated by the market.

According to Kyodo News and other outlets, the Bank of Japan decided at its Monetary Policy Meeting held for two days until today not to adjust and to maintain the short-term policy interest rate, which is the base rate.

The Bank of Japan raised the short-term policy interest rate from "around 0.25%" to "around 0.5%" at its Monetary Policy Meeting in late January and has since frozen the interest rate six consecutive times until today.

Japanese media had been observing the impact of the U.S. Trump administration's tariffs on the Japanese economy and speculated that the interest rate hike would likely be postponed to coordinate policies with the Sanae Takaichi cabinet, which launched on the 21st of this month. Yonhap News