This week has seen several major central banks announce a hiatus to monetary policy until a clearer picture emerges as to the effects of higher energy prices on their respective economies.

We have reviewed the respective decisions below:

On Tuesday, the Bank of Japan’s Policy Board voted 6–3 to keep the overnight call rate at 0.75%. The three dissenting members, Junko Nakagawa, Hajime Takata, and Naoki Tamura, each proposed raising the rate to 1.0%, arguing that price risks were skewed to the upside and that the bank should move the policy rate closer to the neutral rate.

In the Outlook Report, the BoJ revised down its growth forecast for FY2026, but it significantly revised up its inflation forecasts across the projection horizon. (LiveSquawk – Continue Reading)

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) wrangled his raucous members to advance major legislation this week, but the rocky and turbulent dealmaking process angered a number of House Republicans and left looming hurdles.

The ambitious legislative agenda and the fights the bills were sure to spur led Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) to dub the week “hell week” — an assessment that came to fruition with arm-twisting, marathon meetings and votes, and members yelling at leaders.

There were doubts that the razor-thin House GOP majority could pass the three major, must-pass bills it had teed up. (The Hill - Continue Reading)

For almost five decades, Iran’s Islamic government has survived financial pressure from the U.S. by selling oil to China. It confronted American military might with guerrilla tactics. But with the U.S. Navy’s blockade, that strategy might have met its match, analysts said.

Tehran thought it was gaining the upper hand after the war started in February as it attacked ships navigating the Strait of Hormuz, shutting down commercial traffic and blocking a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies. Six weeks into the conflict, the U.S. responded by blockading shipments from all Iranian ports. (WSJ – Continue Reading)

The sons of a powerful family with close ties to Iran’s new supreme leader control the country’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, transforming it from a startup into a conduit to the global economy used by both blacklisted state institutions and ordinary citizens.

Since Nobitex was founded by the two brothers under an alternative family name, it has processed between tens and hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions linked to sanctioned groups including Iran’s central bank and the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a Reuters investigation has found. (Reuters – Continue Reading)