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

The central bank is likely to pause a while before bringing the rate up to 0.75%, the highest rate since 1995.

Backdrop: Japan had been mired in decades of weak prices and economic stagnation, and even as inflation impacted the globe in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic, BOJ policymakers largely viewed local price pressures as imported from elsewhere.

Further deliberations are expected to be required for the Bank of Japan to explore future interest rate hikes, with its key policy rate having approached the highest level in three decades, threatening flagging consumption.

Japan's central bank raised interest rates to their highest since the 2008 global financial crisis and revised up its inflation forecasts.

Japan's central bank has increased the cost of borrowing to its highest level in 17 years after consumer price rises accelerated in December. The move by the Bank of Japan (BOJ) to raise its short-term policy rate to "around 0.

The Bank of Japan increased interest rates on Friday to their highest in 17 years and signalled more hikes to come, sending the yen higher against the dollar.