The Asia and Pacific calendar this week is packed with hugely important economic data releases and central bank policy meetings, none more so than the Bank of Japan’s two-day meeting that starts on Monday.
Expectations are high that the BOJ will raise interest rates for the first time since 2007, bringing the curtain down on eight years of ‘negative interest rate policy’, or NIRP.
Japan’s biggest companies agreed to raise wages by 5.28% for 2024, the heftiest pay hikes in 33 years, the country’s largest union group said on Friday, reinforcing views that policymakers will make their historic move on Tuesday.
Sources have also told Reuters that the BOJ will offer guidance on how much government bonds it will buy upon ending NIRP and yield curve control (YCC), to avoid causing market disruptions.
Policy decisions from the central banks of China, Australia, Indonesia and Taiwan are also on tap this week, as are inflation figures from Japan and New Zealand’s fourth-quarter GDP report.
