The International Monetary Fund welcomes the Bank of Japan's decision to raise interest rates in July, but further hikes should proceed at a gradual pace, a senior IMF official said on Thursday.
Krishna Srinivasan, director of the IMF's Asia and Pacific Department, also told a press briefing that the global lender now expects the BOJ's policy rate to reach 1.5% in 2027.
The BOJ ended its negative rates policy in March and raised short-term rates to 0.25% in July on the view that Japan was making progress toward sustainably achieving its 2% inflation target.
