BOJ locks in June rate hike in a risky bet that nothing gets worse

The Bank of Japan effectively committed to a June rate hike this week as it talked up the risks of an inflation overshoot, a gambit that rests on a shaky assumption the Iran war won't significantly worsen the economic outlook. Unusually blunt signals of a near-term rate hike highlight the BOJ's growing concern the energy shock could trigger second-round effects that may leave it behind the curve in addressing the risk of too-high inflation, analysts say. "The message from the BOJ was that it was really focused on upside risks to inflation," said Tetsuya Inoue, executive economist at Sony Financial Group. "The BOJ ...