(April 6): The Bank of Japan (BOJ) avoided fuelling market expectations over the likelihood of a rate hike this month by keeping its signalling from two quarterly regional economic reports highly nuanced. At the same time, the BOJ said there is emerging cautiousness in the areas over the ramifications of the war in the Middle East. “Regarding pricing, many reports indicated that firms continue to pass on rising costs, such as labour and logistics expenses, to selling prices,” the BOJ said in the report. The regional report indicated that wage trends were developing in line with the BOJ’s outlook — at least before the Middle East conflict escalated. With businesses more active about passing on rising input costs to customers via price hikes, the BOJ has pledged to watch both upside and downside inflation risks.

Source: The Edge Markets April 06, 2026 07:40 UTC