• The Bank of Japan is largely expected to keep its policy rate unchanged.
• Markets’ attention will be on a potential hawkish message by Governor Kazuo Ueda.
• Further announcements could be around JGB purchases.

The Bank of Japan (BoJ) is expected to maintain its short-term rate target between 0% and 0.1% on Friday, June 14, after concluding its two-day monetary policy review meeting for June.

The decision will be announced at 3:00 GMT on Friday. It is worth recalling that, in March, the BoJ raised the interest rate for the first time in 17 years, ending the negative interest rate policy that had been in place since 2016.

What can we expect from the BoJ interest rate decision?

With a steady policy widely expected at this gathering, market participants will keep their attention on the probable changes in the policy statement for fresh hints on the timing of the bank’s next rate increase.

So far, money markets see around 16 bps of hiking in October and nearly 22 bps at the December 19 meeting, according to Reuters.

Data released on Wednesday revealed that Japan's wholesale inflation surged in May at the fastest annual rate in nine months. This indicates that the weak Yen is driving up the cost of raw material imports, thereby exerting upward pressure on prices.

This development complicates the central bank’s decision on the timing of raising interest rates, as price increases driven by cost pressures might reduce consumption, undermining the possibility of achieving the demand-driven inflation the BoJ aims for before further scaling back its stimulus measures.

Also pouring cold water over expectations of extra rate hikes, the National Core CPI approached the bank’s target in April (2.2% YoY), while the Tokyo Core CPI navigated below the inflation goal for the second month in a row in May (1.9% YoY).