The Bank of Japan must raise interest rates to at least 1% by the second half of the fiscal year beginning in April, hawkish board member Naoki Tamura said on Thursday, remarks that pushed up the yen as they reinforcing bets of a near-term rate hike.

Bank of Japan policy board member Naoki Tamura said, “Raising short-term interest rates to at least around 1% in the latter half of fiscal 2025 is necessary to reduce upside risk to prices and achieve the price stability target in a sustainable and stable manner.

My base view is that there is a lot more coming,” the former director said. 'There is little logical reason to believe that rate hikes will stop early.”

The Bank of Japan must raise short-term interest rates to at least 1% by the second half of fiscal 2025 to contain inflation risks, board member Naoki Tamura said on Thursday.

Japan’s real rates clearly remain in negative territory even with last week’s interest rate hike, and the Bank of Japan will keep raising rates if its economic outlook is realized, according to Deputy Governor Ryozo Himino.

The Bank of Japan is likely to wait until the summer before it next raises interest rates, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Most Read from BloombergWhat Happened to Hanging Out on the Street?

The Bank of Japan will likely raise interest rates again around June or July, and seek to triple its policy rate to at least 1.5% in the next two years, former BOJ board member Makoto Sakurai said on Tuesday.

The Bank of Japan raised interest rates on Friday to their highest since the 2008 global financial crisis, underscoring its confidence that rising wages will keep inflation stable around its 2 percent target.