[ANZ Bank: Limited Room for Further Rate Hikes by the Bank of Japan] Jin10 News, February 27 – ANZ Bank predicts that Japan's inflationary pressures will begin to ease this year, and core prices are expected to gradually fall back to the 2% level. This will pose a challenge to the Bank of Japan's mandate to maintain the core inflation rate at that level. The bank noted that there are many factors to consider regarding Japan's economic outlook. However, over the next few months, we expect domestic economic conditions to align with the gradual trend of slowing inflation, continuing until 2026. The overall Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 1.5% year-on-year in January, and we forecast an average increase of 1.7% for this year. We expect the core inflation rate (2.4% year-on-year) to gradually decline, approaching 2.0%. We believe the Bank of Japan needs to act cautiously in further tightening its policy. We anticipate only one additional 25-basis-point rate hike this year, as Japan gradually moves away from the constraints of the zero lower bound, raising the policy rate to 1.00%.