(Bloomberg) -- The Bank of Japan raised its key policy rate to the highest level since 2008 and took a more bullish view on the strength of inflation.
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The rate hike followed a report showing consumer prices excluding fresh food rising at a faster pace of 3%, well above the central bank’s inflation target. In its outlook report, the BOJ raised most of its inflation projections, with all six of them currently at 2% or more for the first time since it started publishing them.
Here are some of the charts that appeared on Bloomberg this week on the latest developments in the global economy, markets and geopolitics:
Asia
BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda and his fellow board members lifted the overnight call rate by a quarter-percentage point to 0.5% at the end of a two-day meeting. A hike was almost fully priced into market expectations ahead of the announcement.
President Xi Jinping’s government has been cracking down on anything perceived as too Western or immoral at the box office in recent years. But as officials try to boost consumer spending to support a cooling economy, there are early signs those constraints are easing.
South Korea’s economy continued to sputter last quarter after President Yoon Suk Yeol’s short-lived declaration of martial law battered consumer confidence just as businesses and policymakers were already fretting about the possibility of US tariffs. For 2024 as a whole, the economy expanded 2%.
US
Sales of previously owned homes in the US rose for the third straight month in December, entering 2025 with some momentum after the worst year in nearly three decades. For all of 2024, sales reached the lowest since 1995, when the US had about 70 million fewer people. It marked the third straight annual decline, stretches only ever seen in the 2006 housing crisis as well as the recessions around the early 1980s and 1990s.
Americans are rolling over an ever-larger share of their credit card debts even with interest rates near multi-decade highs, a sign of growing strain on consumer finances. The share of borrowers who are only making the minimum payments was also the biggest on record.
Europe
Inflation concerns are staging a comeback, raising questions over when the European Central Bank may need to pause or halt interest-rate reductions in the spring, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists. The base case for four quarter-point cuts in 2025 remains in place, with respondents aligned on moves next week and in March.