The Bank of Japan (BOJ) has recently made a historic departure from its long-standing monetary policy by raising its benchmark interest rate for the first time in 17 years. This shift from decades of aggressive monetary stimulus, aimed at reflating growth, comes as wages and consumer prices climb. The move has ignited intense discussion and analysis surrounding “the Bank of Japan” in the third week of March, reveals the Social Media Analytics Platform of GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

The move, which ended the era of negative interest rates, was met with a blend of enthusiasm and guarded optimism among financial influencers. They highlighted the BOJ’s commitment to a careful and adaptable approach, leading to a wide array of analyses on the implications for both Japan’s economy and the international financial market.

Smitarani Tripathy, Social Media Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “This decision has sparked a rich dialogue among influencers, weighing the benefits of monetary policy normalization against the risks of economic strain and market fluctuations. On one hand, it is celebrated as a historic move towards economic normalization, ending the world’s last negative rate regime, signaling financial maturity. On the other hand, there is apprehension about potential adverse effects on the global economy, including currency volatility and increased costs for maintaining asset prices.”

Below are a few popular influencer opinions captured by GlobalData’s Social Media Analytics Platform:

1. Mohammed A. El-Erianmu, President in Queen’s College, Cambridge University:

“This data point overwhelmingly swung the consensus in favor of the Bank of Japan hiking interest rates today for the first time in 17 years, eliminating the YCC (yield curve control) regime, and ending some asset purchases. We should consider this a step in a long-awaited normalization journey. The initial moves are unlikely to significantly disrupt financial markets in other advanced economies. However, what comes later in this BoJ policy journey will be particularly interesting.”

2. Bob Elliot, CEO & CIO at Unlimited:

“BoJ delivers about the most dovish hike they could have to move off negative rate policy.  Ueda keeping a lot of flexibility to keep easy policy and repeating the lack of urgency to tighten fast.  Thread. Yen sold off sharply on the news thru 150 and back to the recent bottom..”

3. Lisa Abramowicz, Co-Host at BSurveillance:

“One reason why the BOJ rate hike is a buy-the-rumor sell-the-news event: Japan’s economy “is expected to be under downward pressure stemming from a slowdown in the pace of recovery in overseas economies:” BOJ. In other words, more rate hikes aren’t likely.”

4. Quinten Francois, Co-Founder of WhereAt:

“Every time the Bank of Japan raised rates we ended up in a global recession. The BoJ just raised its rates. Global recession means acceleration of currency debasement…”