Stock market today: S&P 500 climbs as health care, tech gain; Nvidia earnings loom
Investing.com-- The Bank of Japan will hike interest rates further if growth and inflation continue to advance in line with its estimates, the minutes of the central bank’s June meeting showed on Tuesday.
The minutes showed most BOJ members supported keeping interest rates unchanged for the time-being, especially amid heightened uncertainty over U.S. trade tariffs. One member also supported the BOJ keeping interest rates unchanged indefinitely, amid concerns that Japanese economic growth and inflation will moderate.
But a bulk of members, including Governor Kazuo Ueda, supported an eventual hike in interest rates, with economic growth and inflation expected to pick up in the medium-term.
The BOJ largely maintained this notion during its late-July meeting, where the central bank kept interest rates unchanged but said it remained open to future hikes if inflation and economic growth increased.
Japanese inflation was underpinned by a sharp rise in food prices this year, especially rice. Strong wage hikes also factored into increased consumer spending.
The BOJ had left interest rates steady at 0.5% in June, and had outlined a slower pace of tapering its monthly bond purchases from 2026, amid heightened economic uncertainty.