Danske Research Team reports that Reuters sources suggest the Bank of Japan (BoJ) is likely to hold off raising interest rates at the April meeting due to uncertainty from the Iran war. While most conditions for a hike remain in place, Danske now expects no April move and postpones its rate-hike call to June, in line with current market pricing.

War uncertainty delays BoJ normalisation

"In Japan, Reuters sources said that "the BoJ is likely to hold off raising interest rates..." citing economic and price outlook uncertainty imposed by the war."

"We now expect the Bank of Japan to keep interest rates unchanged at the April meeting next week."

"While we think most conditions for a hike are still in place, the BoJ is unlikely to deliver any surprises."

"As such, we postpone our call for a rate hike to June, which markets currently price as a 50% probability, although this will largely depend on developments in energy markets."

(This article was created with the help of an Artificial Intelligence tool and reviewed by an editor.)