Japan's central bank lifts policy rate to 31-year high

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) decided Tuesday at its two-day board meeting to raise its benchmark interest rate to 1.0 percent from 0.75 percent, the highest in 31 years.

The BOJ said that due to the situation in the Middle East, crude oil prices remain persistently high, and there is a possibility that Japan's prices could rise significantly beyond expectation. It has therefore decided to implement an interest rate hike.

China's foreign exchange market has remained generally stable in May despite continued volatility of the international financial markets, data released by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) showed on Monday.

The amount of foreign exchange settlement and sales by banks in May was 1.6676 trillion yuan (about 246.67 billion U.S. dollars) and 1.4229 trillion yuan (about 210.47 billion U.S. dollars), respectively, according to the statistics.

In May, the amount of cross-border receipts and payments by non-banking sectors was 5.2913 trillion yuan (about 782.67 billion U.S. dollars) and 4.8637 trillion yuan (about 719.42 billion U.S. dollars), respectively.

According to SAFE, in May, cross-border receipts and payments by enterprises, individuals and other non-banking sectors totaled 1.5 trillion U.S. dollars, up 22 percent year on year.

The country's foreign exchange market recorded transactions worth 3.4 trillion U.S. dollars in May, broadly unchanged from a year earlier.

In May, cross-border capital net inflows by enterprises, individuals and other non-banking sectors stood at 62.5 billion U.S. dollars, edging up 1 percent from the previous month. Banks posted a foreign exchange settlement surplus of 35.8 billion U.S. dollars, down 11 percent month on month.

The foreign exchange settlement rate for foreign exchange income and the foreign exchange purchase rate for foreign exchange expenditure by enterprises and other entities remained largely flat month on month, showing that various market entities have steady willingness to settle and purchase foreign exchange.