The Bank of Japan downgraded its economic assessments for seven of nine regions, the most cuts since April 2022, underscoring the economic recovery’s fragility after the bank’s first interest rate hike since 2007 last month.
The central bank kept its appraisals of the other two areas unchanged, according to a quarterly regional economic report Thursday.
The downgrades mostly came in the form of qualifying expressions, such as, "some weakness has been seen in part.” Most regions still say their economies are picking up or recovering moderately overall, so the report doesn’t suggest a major shift is likely in the BOJ’s overall economic view. While the bank is widely forecast to keep policy unchanged when the board next gathers on April 25 and 26, many economists expect another hike by October.