The Bank of Japan (BoJ) is expected to roughly maintain its view that the economy will by the end of this yea.recover from a downturn induced by the coronavirus pandemic.
BoJ report
Sources from BoJ told Reuters that after increasing the stimulus in March and April, the bank will comment on keeping monetary policy stable in its quarterly assessment report, set for release next week.
The BOJ report is expected to warn that risks on the outlook remain extremely high, including a second wave of infections that may delay any improvement in Japanese and the global economy.
“The Japanese economy probably hit rock bottom,” said one source. “BOJ will probably not need to change the baseline view that the economy will start recovering this year,” he added.
In its April report, BOJ predicted that GDP will shrink by 3.0% to 5.0% for the current fiscal year ending in March 2021, but will grow by 2.8% to 3.9% in the 2021 fiscal year.
China warns the UK
China’s Ambassador to London has accused the UK of making a major intervention and irresponsible remarks since Beijing enforced new security legislation on the British colony of Hong Kong.
“The UK government keeps making irresponsible remarks on Hong Kong affairs,” ambassador Liu Xiaoming told reporters Monday.
However, Xiaoming said that although China wants friendly relations with Britain, Britain’s suspicion of China will have consequences.
“We want to be your friend, we want to be your partner, but if you want to make China a hostile country you have to bear the consequences,” Chinese Ambassador said.
On the contentious issue of Chinese Huawei whose products and services the US want to prevent from its allies’ use, “If you do not want Huawei, it is up to you,” he said.
Euro data
Figures from the EU statistics agency showed that after the record drops in March and April, consumers in the Eurozone returned to stores en masse in May.
Sales in 19 countries sharing the Euro currency rose 17.8% in May compared to the previous month. Eurostat data is the highest increase since 1999 when records for retail sales began to be kept.
Expectations were for a 15% increase.
Compared to a year ago, sales fell 5.1% in May against 7.5% drop expectations, indicating that the recovery was not complete.
