00:00As expected, the rate on hold at 1%, so no change from the Bank of Japan today.
00:06But Sherry, I want to bring you in here. What else are we hearing from the BOJ?
00:11So the BOJ keeping the rate on 1%, as you said, Paul, and this will be the highest level since
00:161995.
00:17Very much as expected, despite, of course, a little bit of here and there and conversations and speculations
00:22because of that intervention suspected earlier yesterday.
00:26But the BOJ now saying that they will keep raising the rate in response to what the economy is doing,
00:32what prices are doing, that economic risks generally are balanced.
00:36This is interesting. There is risk of price trends deviating above the target.
00:40So, again, they're pointing to some inflationary pressures.
00:44And this, of course, we have seen it already today in the data.
00:48Tokyo CPI accelerating for a second month and Core CPI, the headline for the national prices last week,
00:54accelerating again for the first time in three months.
00:57So the BOJ is saying we need to watch the impact on currencies, on the economy, and inflation.
01:04Remember, right now the concern is the weakness of the Japanese yen at a 40-year low against the U
01:08.S. dollar.
01:08And you have those import prices rising, oil prices rising.
01:12And on oil prices, the BOJ is saying that they need to pay particular attention to the situation in the
01:18Middle East.
01:18Nothing much happening with the Japanese yen right now, still at that 160 level against the U.S. dollar.
01:24But the BOJ is saying that the global AI demand, though, is helping support Japan's economy.
01:30Now, this is interesting because they are actually upgrading their forecast for the full year of 2026 of GDP to
01:370.6% from 0.5%.
01:40It's interesting because we saw actually the government downgrading their forecast.
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