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Japan's central bank on Friday raised the benchmark interest rate to 1.25 per cent from 1.0 per cent, a 31-year-high. The move Friday, coming at the end of the two-day monetary policy board meeting, was expected, widely figured into recent global markets. The raise by 0.25 percentage points to the policy rate comes after the Federal Reserve also raised its key rate this week. Pressures have been coming from the US for Japan to raise rates because of concerns about the weakening yen. The nations intervened together recently to prop up the yen. The US dollar is trading at about 155 yen.
Foreign banks have exhibited the strongest transmission of the Reserve Bank of India's policy easing during the current rate-cut cycle, lowering both lending and deposit rates more sharply than their public and private sector peers, according to the RBI's bulletin. In its monthly bulletin released on Wednesday, the RBI said that during the easing cycle between February 2025 and May 2026, scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) reduced repo-linked external benchmark-based lending rates (EBLR) and marginal cost of funds-based lending rates (MCLR), with pass-through to fresh lending rates remaining particularly strong in infrastructure and other EBLR-mandated sectors. The bulletin showed that foreign banks cut weighted average lending rates (WALR) on fresh rupee loans by 1.24 percentage point, compared with 1.08 percentage point by private banks and 0.66 per cent by public sector banks. For outstanding rupee loans, foreign banks again led transmission with a 1.20 percentage point reduction,