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

The Bank of Japan (BoJ) has raised its key short-term interest rate by 25 basis points to 0.5%, marking the highest level since 2008.

The Bank of Japan has raised short-term interest rates by a quarter point, the highest in 17 years, signalling efforts to normalise monetary policy in response to persistent inflation and increasing wages.

A look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets from Mike Dolan The dollar fell to its lowest of the year as the Bank of Japan delivered a long-awaited interest rate rise on Friday, euro business unexpectedly returned to growth and President Donald Trump's latest comments gave China a lift.

World shares advanced Friday after U.S. stocks rose to a record and the Bank of Japan raised its key lending rate.

Japan's central bank has raised the cost of borrowing to its highest level in 17 years, as it tries to curb rising prices. The move by the Bank of Japan (BOJ) to raise its short-term policy rate to 0.5% comes just hours after the latest economic data showed prices rose last month at the fastest pace in 16 months.

The BOJ concludes its two-day policy meeting later in the day and markets have fully priced in a 25-basis-point hike, with comments from BOJ officials in recent times also hinting at such a move. Ahead of the decision, the yen was little changed at 156.11 per dollar, languishing near a one-week low hit in the previous session.

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.

The Bank of Japan delivered a widely expected 25 basis point hike to its key lending rate on Friday, bringing the overnight call rate to the highest since 2008 and putting pressure on the dollar. The ICE Dollar Index slipped 0.

Governor Kazuo Ueda and his fellow board members lifted the overnight call rate by a quarter-percentage point to 0.5% at the end of a two-day meeting.