Most Asian stock indices declined today. South Korea’s Kospi dipped three and a half per cent, Taiwan’s Taiex index dropped two and a half per cent, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 2.1 per cent, China’s Shanghai Composite slipped over 1.4 per cent, and Singapore’s Strait Times index lost nearly 0.4 per cent. In contrast, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose nearly one and a half per cent.
Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan’s policy board voted 8-1 to keep its key short-term interest rate unchanged at 1.25 per cent. Board member Hajime Takata dissented, proposing an increase in the rate to 1.5 per cent. He argued that underlying consumer price inflation had reached the central bank’s price stability target and that the Bank of Japan should accelerate the pace of bringing interest rates closer to the neutral level.
In European markets, Germany’s DAX dropped over half a per cent, while London’s FTSE 100 added 0.3 per cent, when reports last came in. Meanwhile, GDP of the European Union expanded by 1.5 percent year-on-year during the same period, up from 1.4 per cent in the previous quarter.
