The Governor of the Bank of Japan's speech leans toward the "hawkish" side. If the economy continues to develop as expected, the central bank will further raise interest rates. The specific decision will be made after assessing the impact of this rate hike.

BlockBeats News, December 19th. Haruhiko Kuroda, Governor of the Bank of Japan, stated in today's afternoon monetary policy press conference that, to some extent, the Japanese economy is experiencing weakness but is undergoing a mild recovery. If the economy and prices develop as expected and improve along with the economic and price conditions, the Bank of Japan will continue to raise the policy rate.

After this rate hike, the Japanese benchmark interest rate has increased from 0.50% to 0.75%. This level marks the highest point since 1995, signaling Japan's formal departure from the era of maintaining ultra-low interest rates that has lasted for 30 years. Regarding this, Kuroda stated: "The short-term interest rate reaching a 30-year high does not have any special meaning, and we will closely watch the impact of the latest rate changes."

Regarding future plans, Kuroda mentioned: "The pace of monetary adjustment will depend on the economic, price, and financial outlook. There is still some distance from the lower limit of the neutral interest rate range. We have not observed a strong tightening effect as seen in previous rate hikes. We will decide on a further rate hike after evaluating the impact of raising the rate to 0.75% on the economy and prices. If wage increases continue to transmit to prices, a rate hike is indeed possible."