22 Countries around the World, including the U.S., Japan, Set Interest Rates This Week

Photo Source: Yonhap News

Central banks in at least 22 countries will decide monetary policy this week.

It is two-fifths of the world's economy.

The U.S. central bank's Federal Reserve is expected to hold a Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) on the 17th and 18th to cut interest rates by 0.25 percentage points.

As the market's attention is focused on the pace of the Fed's rate cut next year, attention is drawn to the fact that the FOMC meeting shows Fed members' interest rate prospects.

The Bank of England (BOE), the central bank of the United Kingdom, is generally expected to freeze interest rates at a meeting on the 19th.

The BOE has been carefully cutting interest rates, taking into account both the growth shock that could be caused by Trump's trade policy and continued inflationary pressure, and is expected to continue this trend.

Local media reported on the 14th that the Bank of Japan (BOJ), the central bank of Japan, is also expected to freeze its key interest rate at the financial policy-making meeting to be held from the 18th to the 19th.

The Bank of Japan ended its negative interest rate policy in March by raising its key interest rate for the first time in 17 years, and then raised its key rate to around 0.25% from 0-0.1% at its July meeting, but has remained frozen ever since.

In the Nordic region, central banks' interest rate decisions are expected to be differentiated.

Sweden's central bank cut its key interest rate by half a percentage point last month, but many predict it will slow down this time to cut it by a quarter of a percentage point.

Norway's central bank, on the other hand, is expected to freeze its key interest rate as core inflation stops slowing for the first time in a year.

Russia's central bank is likely to raise its key interest rate by 2 percentage points to 23% as consumer prices continue to exceed its target (4%).

Earlier on the 12th, the European Central Bank (ECB) cut its benchmark interest rate by 0.25% points from 3.40% to 3.15% at its last monetary policy meeting this year.

It has been reduced three times in a row since September.

Meanwhile, Wang Xin, director of the research bureau under the People's Bank of China, the central bank of China, said at an event on the 14th that the People's Bank would cut interest rates and reserve ratios in a timely manner next year, the 21st Century Business Herald reported.

China's ruling party and the government held the Central Economic Cooperation Conference, an annual meeting to determine next year's economic policy direction, from the 11th to the 12th and expressed their intention to expand fiscal deficits and issuance of ultra-long-term special government bonds to revive the economy, and to continue liquidity supply policies such as interest rate cuts.