Bank of Japan leaves interest rates unchanged

Officials at the Bank of Japan decided to leave interest rates unchanged on Friday, as the central bank upgraded its few on consumption and signalled greater confidence in the economic recovery.

In a unanimous decision, policymakers said the benchmark short-term interest rate – known as the uncollateralized overnight call rate – would remain at 0.25%. This was in line with market expectations.

The BoJ said that private consumption has been on a "moderate increasing trend despite the impact of price rises and other factors". In previous statements, the bank had said consumption had been "resilient".

On the price front, the annual rate of consumer price inflation excluding food has been in the range of 2.5% to 3.0% recently as services prices have continued to rise moderately due to things like wage increases, the bank said.

"Although the effects of a passthrough to consumer prices of cost increases led by the past rise in import prices have waned," it added.

Looking ahead, the BoJ said CPI inflation is expected to rise through in 2025 due to factors like the "dissipation of the effects of the government's measures pushing down CPI inflation".