BOJ may raise rate in June and October, former official says
The Bank of Japan may follow its highly anticipated rate increase next week with another move higher as soon as October as it races to stay ahead of the curve in fighting inflation, according to a former executive director.“The next hike would probably be in October at the earliest” after the move in June, Hideo Hayakawa, the former official, said in an interview Tuesday. “The BOJ is already falling behind the curve a little, so they need to catch up at some point.”Hayakawa spoke a week before the BOJ is widely expected to raise its benchmark interest rate a quarter percentage point, in what would be the first adjustment since December. There are growing perceptions in the market that the BOJ has been too slow in responding to inflationary pressure stemming in part from the Middle East conflict. A focus of the gathering next week will be any signals pointing to a faster pace of rate increases.
