{"id":135603,"date":"2026-08-28T15:40:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T15:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/135603\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T15:40:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T15:40:13","slug":"rate-hikes-strain-public-finances-cuts-risk-inflation-as-central-banks-face-dilemma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/135603\/","title":{"rendered":"Rate Hikes Strain Public Finances, Cuts Risk Inflation as Central Banks Face Dilemma"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Japan Bond Yields Jump After Government Appears to Lean Against Rate Increases<br \/>\nTreasury, Fed Clash in US Over Long-Term Yields<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/aab594af-fd27-4554-ba9c-e2d2e3221ec7.webp\" alt=\"Photo: Shutterstock\" width=\"646\" role=\"presentation\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>Photo: Shutterstock<\/p>\n<p>Japan\u2019s 10-year government bond yield surged to 2.9% on June 30, the highest level in 30 years. The jump came just after the government of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi released its annual basic policy guidelines on economic and fiscal management, known as the Honebuto policy. A line stating that \u201cappropriate conduct of monetary policy by the Bank of Japan is also extremely important\u201d to achieve a \u201cstrong economy\u201d sparked the selloff.<\/p>\n<p>Japan\u2019s consumer prices stayed above the central bank\u2019s 2% target for 45 consecutive months through December last year. They have remained at 1.8% to 1.9% this year. The Bank of Japan raised its policy rate to 1.0% in June, but that has not been enough to curb inflation. Investors took the government\u2019s wording as an encroachment on BOJ independence and bond vigilantes responded with a warning. The government later revised the language, but yields kept rising and the yen fell sharply.<\/p>\n<p>The episode underscores the BOJ\u2019s dilemma. Higher rates worsen the government\u2019s fiscal position. Rising bond yields lift interest costs, and issuing more debt to cover them risks deepening the cycle of debt accumulation. If the BOJ delays further rate increases because of the fiscal burden, the weak yen and higher import prices could persist. The Takaichi government\u2019s expansionary fiscal policy is also adding to the strain on monetary policy.<\/p>\n<p>The Federal Reserve faces a similar predicament. With long-term Treasury yields climbing, the Treasury Department and the Fed are increasingly at odds over how to respond. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has proposed expanding bond buybacks. Talk of using the Treasury General Account, the federal government\u2019s cash account, to fund those purchases has fueled criticism that the Treasury is effectively embarking on quantitative easing. For Fed Chair Kevin Warsh, who has consistently opposed growth in the money supply and an expanded Fed balance sheet, the Treasury\u2019s move is difficult to accept.<\/p>\n<p>If Warsh, whom markets suspect is aligned with President Donald Trump, moves in lockstep with the Treasury, questions over central-bank independence could intensify. If he tries to rein in the Treasury instead, he risks a direct clash with the administration.<\/p>\n<p>In South Korea, the Bank of Korea raised its benchmark interest rate on August 28 for a second straight month. That has intensified debate over whether policy is out of step with the government, which is pushing to draft a record budget for next year of more than 800 trillion won ($578.8 billion).<\/p>\n<p>Choi Man-su, Tokyo correspondent, Korea Economic Daily, bebop@hankyung.com<\/p>\n<p>Shim Seong-mi, reporter, Korea Economic Daily, smshim@hankyung.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japan Bond Yields Jump After Government Appears to Lean Against Rate Increases Treasury, Fed Clash in US Over&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[456],"tags":[845,530,524,534,522,846,523,529,528,526,525,527,533,531,532],"class_list":["post-135603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bank-of-korea","tag-bank-of-korea","tag-bitcoin","tag-bitcoincommunity","tag-blockchain","tag-bloomingbit","tag-bok","tag-coincommunity","tag-coininfo","tag-coininvest","tag-coinnews","tag-coinreview","tag-coinstats","tag-cryptocurrency","tag-ethereum","tag-solana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}