PANews reported on August 12 that according to Cointelegraph, Makoto Sakurai, a former member of the Bank of Japan, said that the Bank of Japan will not raise interest rates again this year due to the economic turmoil caused by the last sudden interest rate hike. Makoto Sakurai said in a report on August 12: "At least for the rest of this year, they will not be able to raise interest rates again."
In early August, after the Bank of Japan abruptly raised its benchmark interest rate to 0.25%, stock and cryptocurrency markets saw a sharp sell-off. The rate hike disrupted the yen carry trade - investors borrow yen at low rates and use those funds to buy foreign assets. Notably, the catalyst was not the rate hike itself, but the subsequent events: a surge in the yen in foreign exchange markets. Starting on July 31, the USD/JPY exchange rate fell from around 153 yen to 1 dollar to 145 yen. Overnight, the cost of borrowing money denominated in yen rose sharply.
While the rate hike may have roiled global markets, Sakurai said it was a much-needed change for Japan, which has kept interest rates between 0 and -0.1% for the past 17 years. "It's a good thing that they decided to move from almost zero interest rates to a normal 0.25% in the process of returning to normal monetary policy," Sakurai said, adding that it would be wise for the central bank to "wait and see" how further rate hikes would play out.
