Bank of Japan upgrades economic view for 2 of 9 regions

TOKYO: The Bank of Japan on Thursday raised its economic assessment for two of the country’s nine regions and said robust AI-related demand was underpinning output.

It maintained its assessment for the remaining seven areas.

“Many regions saw firms passing on a broad range of rising costs,” including higher raw material costs from the Middle East conflict and the weak yen, as well as increasing labour costs, the BOJ said in a statement released after a quarterly meeting of its regional branch managers.