Business

The Bank of Japan raised interest rates for the first time since 2007. The target rate for overnight loans was raised from between minus 0.1% and zero to between zero and 0.1%, making the BoJ the last central bank to end a negative- interest-rate policy (it first took rates below zero in 2016). The bank also ditched its yield-curve controls, which capped the yields on long-term government bonds. The change in direction had been signalled for months, but Ueda Kazuo, the bank’s governor, said it would maintain “accommodative financial conditions”. The bank will still buy about ¥6trn ($40bn) a month in government bonds.