An on hold decision was the consensus. Rate hike instead.

Its benchmark rate is now at its highest since August 2019. Today’s hike comes to combat surgiung inflation which is circa 4% vs. the BoK target of 2%.

There will be a BoK press conference to follow at 0220 GMT.

Reuters Corporate Survey shows:

• More than three-quarters of Japanese firms say the yen has declined to point of being detrimental to their business
• almost half of companies expecting a hit to earnings
• companies are more worried about how it inflates fuel and raw material imports, which are already soaring due to the war in Ukraine. A decades-long shift to producing more goods overseas has also muted a weak yen’s benefits.
• also showed almost 60% think the government should move quickly to restart nuclear reactors, evidence that higher energy costs – driven in part by the currency’s slide – may be changing opinion on nuclear policy

here is the link for more. None of this is surprising, we’ve been hearing similar for weeks/months and we’ve been getting officials bemoaning the currency drop for weeks/months also.