Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that due to the yen’s continued depreciation, inflation risks have intensified. Bank of Japan officials are open to rate hikes earlier than the market expects, and they have not set a fixed path of “raising rates once every 6 months.” The market broadly expects the Bank of Japan to keep interest rates unchanged at its July 31 meeting. Previously, it raised policy rates to 1% in June, the highest level in 31 years. Currently, overnight index swaps show a roughly 72% probability that the Bank of Japan will hike rates again before October.