The Bank of Japan elected to maintain its policy rate at “around 0.5%” and remains cautious as it sees global economic uncertainty rising.

• The BoJ expects underlying CPI inflation to continue to “increase gradually” as strong wage growth pushes through to consumer prices.
• Additionally, it sees elevated rice prices and the dissipation of government measures to reduce inflation as factors that will push YoY core CPI inflation higher.
• BoJ Governor Ueda in the press conference: "Japan's wage and price conditions are on track, possibly stronger than expected. But the uncertain U.S. and global outlook makes it difficult to assess the potential impact on Japan's economy…”