Crunch Base : The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Ascend Elements Cashes In; O

The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Ascend Elements Cashes In; OpenWeb Raises Big For Healthier Conversations

What has been interesting in the last few months as rounds have been a little lighter is where investors are putting their cash. Once upon a time not that long ago, fintech, cybersecurity and crypto would dominate this list. This week, the top three rounds were raised by a battery recycler, a social platform and a loyalty rewards program. It seems like in a down market, investors are turning over every rock to find the best investment, not just following group-think to invest in the next SaaS platform.

1. Ascend Elements, $200M, batteries: It’s been quite the October for Westborough, Massachusetts-based Ascend Elements. Earlier this month, the lithium-ion battery recycler received $480 million via two Department of Energy grants. This week, the startup closed a $200 million Series C led by Fifth Wall Climate, which also included a $100 million debt facility. That’s a lot of cash in a month. The company plans to put it to good use, as it will look to commercialize its recycling process that could cut down on the raw material shortage the EV market currently faces, and is building a $1 billion sustainable lithium-ion battery materials facility in Kentucky. Founded in 2015, Ascend Elements has now raised more than $920 million, according to Crunchbase data.

2. OpenWeb, $170M, social: New York-based OpenWeb says it is trying to build a “healthy, social layer of the internet.” God knows that would be helpful right now. Apparently so do investors, as the community engagement platform startup raised a $170 million Series F led by Georgian and valuing the company at $1.5 billion. Originally founded in Israel, OpenWeb helps large publishers and brands build direct relationships with their audiences. The startup’s beginnings were as a platform for readers to give comments, but now offers other features including polling and data-management tools. Not sure that’ll really help social interactions be more civil on the internet, but at this point pretty much anything would be better. Founded in 2015, OpenWeb says it has raised $393 million to date.

3. Bilt Rewards, $150M, loyalty programs: For many, the dream of homeownership is beyond their reach. However, New York-based Bilt Rewards is trying to help. The startup closed a $150 million growth round this week led by Left Lane Capital at a $1.5 billion valuation. Bilt’s platform allows renters to earn points while also increasing their credit scores by simply paying their rent. Those points can even be used for downpayment and closing costs when buying a home. Bilt also can show renters what they could own for an equal monthly mortgage payment compared to their rent. The new valuation is a significant jump forward for the startup. Last September, Bilt raised a $60 million seed round at a $3.5 billion valuation — just after launching in June 2021.

4. Versa Networks, $120M, cybersecurity: Even though cybersecurity funding is not having the year it did last (which industry is?), some companies can still raise cash. Santa Clara, California-based networking and cybersecurity firm Versa Networks closed what the company is calling a “pre-IPO round” of $120 million. The round was predominantly equity, with some debt. The equity portion was led by funds and accounts managed by BlackRock. Silicon Valley Bank also participated in the round. Versa positions itself as an SASE (secure access service edge) platform — a growing subsector in cyber. As companies move more to the cloud and toward edge computing, such security is seen as more vital. Large companies like Zscaler and Palo Alto Networks offer such platforms, as does startup Cato Networks (last valued at $2.5 billion). Founded in 2012, Versa has raised $316 million to date, according to Crunchbase data.

5. ConnexPay, $110M, fintech: Atlanta-based fintech platform ConnexPay locked up a $110 million growth investment led by FTV Capital to move past just its current U.S. market and into Europe. The startup integrates incoming user payments with supplier payments in one platform — allowing lower merchant processing fees and users to immediately access fund payments. The company started out in the travel sector, working with travel agencies and operators before expanding to online retailers and delivery services. The startup has doubled its client base in the past year and also is profitable, according to the company. Founded in 2017, ConnexPay says it has raised $145 million in total.

6. Jetti Resources, $100M, mining: Boulder, Colorado-based Jetti Resources, a copper-mining extraction company, closed a $100 million Series D led by funds advised by T. Rowe Price Associates at a valuation of $2.5 billion. Founded in 2014, the company has raised nearly $170 million, according to Crunchbase data.

7. RapidSOS, $75M, public safety: New York-based company RapidSOS raised $57 million led by NightDragon Security. Founded in 2012, the company has developed an emergency response data platform to help first responders. RapidSOS has raised $250 million, according to the company.

8. Normunity, $65M, biotech: Boston- and West Haven, Connecticut-based company Normunity, a biotechnology company creating anti-cancer immunotherapies, announced its launch and the fact it raised a $65 million Series A led by Canaan Ventures.

9. (tied) CharterUP, $60M, transportation: Atlanta-based CharterUP closed a $60 million Series A led by Tritium Partners. Founded in 2018, the startup has created a charter bus marketplace for reservations.

9. (tied) HealthJoy, $60M, healthcare: Chicago-based HealthJoy, a health care navigation platform, locked up a $60 million Series D led by Valspring Capital. Founded in 2014, HealthJoy has raised a total of $108 million, per the company.


Big global deals
Even though U.S.-based startups saw some big rounds, so did some outside the country. The two largest rounds announced this week were:
  • China-based Farizon Auto, a maker of clean energy commercial vehicles, closed a $300 million seed round.
  • China-based China Electronics Corp., an electronic information technology products developer, raised a $275 million corporate round.

9to5 : Telegram removes paid posts from its iOS app due to App Store guidelines


Telegram this year introduced a paid “Premium” subscription that unlocks extra features for users, but it seems the platform wants to make even more money from the messaging app. This time, Telegram has been quietly testing paid posts on channels. But more than that, the app is using its own payment system on iOS to bypass Apple’s in-app purchases.
Article updated with a statement from Telegram.



Statement from Telegram
After the article was published, a Telegram spokesperson told 9to5Mac that the company is not testing a paid posts feature. Instead, some creators are using third-party donation and pay-to-view bots.
On Friday, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov shared a public message in which he says that the platform has never charged users for transactions made using these bots. However, as the news spread, Apple reportedly requested Telegram to remove this feature from the iOS app.
You can read Durov’s full statement on his Telegram channel. You can also read our original article below.
Telegram’s paid posts bypass the App Store payment system
As noted by social media consultant Matt Navarra, a few Telegram channels have already received access to this feature, which allows creators to charge money for people to view specific messages. The feature hasn’t been officially announced by the platform, which suggests that it is still being tested.
However, the interesting thing about this story is that paid posts are also available in Telegram’s iOS app. But even there, the app uses its own payment system rather than the App Store’s in-app purchases system.
It’s unclear whether Apple knows about Telegram’s plans, but that seems unlikely since selling in-app content using alternative payment systems is against App Store guidelines.
Developers offering paid content in their apps are required to do so using Apple’s in-app purchases. The only exceptions are apps in the “reading” category, which can redirect users to pay for a subscription on an external website. In South Korea, Apple has also been forced to allow developers to use alternative payment methods, but this is not the case with Telegram.
Of course, Telegram is probably trying to bypass the App Store’s in-app purchases system in order not to pay the 30% commission on each sale to Apple. For instance, the Telegram Premium monthly subscription costs $4.99 when you pay for it through the iOS app. But if you choose to pay from the Telegram website, the same subscription costs $3.99.
Long-running battle between Telegram and Apple
Durov openly criticizes Apple due to the App Store’s strict rules. Updates of Telegram’s iOS app have multiple times been rejected by Apple for violating some of the company’s guidelines, such as replicating the iOS emoji design.
There’s no word on when this feature will become available for everyone. But if Telegram insists on rolling out paid posts without using the App Store’s in-app purchases system, it won’t be long before the company faces another battle with Apple.

9to5 : iPhone 15 Pro may replace clicky volume and power buttons with solid-stat




Apple could be planning to replace the clickable volume and power buttons on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max next year with solid-state buttons. Supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo shared this detail, comparing it to when the iPhone 7 replaced the clickable Home button with a solid-state Home button.



Solid-state buttons
Kuo predicts this change will happen on the high-end iPhone models released in the second half of next year.
“My latest survey indicates that the volume button and power button of two high-end iPhone 15/2H23 new iPhone models may adopt a solid-state button design (similar to the home button design of iPhone 7/8/SE2 & 3) to replace the physical/mechanical button design,” Kuo predicts.
That means this is one change we could see on the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max… or Ultra? Either way, the standard iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus will stick to clicky buttons. This could be marketed as added durability for the higher-end iPhones. Let’s call that another point for the “Ultra” marketing possibility.
Three Taptic Engines
Like with the Home button, Kuo says Apple will rely on Taptic Engine vibration motors to simulate the feeling of a click.
“Like with the Home button, Kuo says Apple will rely on Taptic Engine vibration motors to simulate the feeling of a click,” Kuo writes. “Due to this design change, the number of Taptic Engines used in each iPhone will increase from the current one to three. As a result, the existing Taptic Engine suppliers, Luxshare ICT (1st supplier) and AAC Technologies (2nd supplier) will be significant beneficiaries.”
iPhone 15 is also expected to be the first series to drop Lightning in favor of USB-C. We’re only a month out from the iPhone 14 launch, and we’re already getting a clearer picture of what to expect eleven months from now.
9to5Mac’s Take
What may be most interesting about iPhone 15 Pro going solid-state is that it could happen before the Apple Watch.
Apple Watch Ultra sort of shows that you don’t exactly need solid-state buttons to have extreme durability though. On the other hand, I’ve definitely gunked up the volume and power buttons on recent iPhones from exposure to the elements and my five-year-old.
What do you think about solid-state volume and power buttons coming to the iPhone 15 Pro? Fewer parts to fail or more complexity with additional Taptic Engines? Let us know what you think.

Barrons : Chinese Stocks Look Cheap. But Bargain Hunters Risk Losing Big.

Chinese Stocks Look Cheap. But Bargain Hunters Risk Losing Big.

Thirty years ago this past week, Eaton Vance launched a U.S. mutual fund for investing in China. I remember the wholesaler’s sandwiches.

A mutual fund wholesaler, if you’re unfamiliar with the term, is someone who talks people into talking other people into buying mutual funds. Back then, I was a cold-calling stockbroker at a big firm. I had almost no clients, but the wholesalers didn’t know that, and I attended all of their pitches because they bought lunch.

China has a billion people, one fellow explained. Its economy is small, but it’s embracing capitalism and freedom, so it’s bound to soar. Investing there now is like getting in early on U.S. shares.

It sounded plausible. A year before the fund launched, a man named Boris Yeltsin had climbed onto a tank in Moscow to defy a Communist hard-liner coup, and just like that, the Soviet Union was gone. Barely a decade before that, I had done drills in school to prepare for a Soviet nuclear strike. The world was changing quickly.

To its credit, Eaton Vance Greater China GrowthEVCGX –3.47% (ticker: EVCGX) has returned nearly 5% a year since inception, while the broad Chinese market has made next to nothing. But the U.S. market has returned 10% a year.

What went wrong? Not growth. China’s economy soared, just like the wholesaler said, even without capitalism. But studies over the years have blown holes in the assumption that gross domestic product and stock returns are closely linked. One reason is that economic gains are often driven by new firms that haven’t yet made their way into shareholder hands. Another is that shares in high-growth economies are sometimes too expensive.

Today, U.S. investors have their pick of world-class Chinese companies that trade on U.S. exchanges, and a two-year rout has left many of them looking cheap. Alibaba Group Holding (BABA), a data-driven colossus in retail, logistics, lending, and more, has generated $89 billion in free cash over the past five years, versus $75 billion for Amazon.com (AMZN). Its shares are lower than their debut price in 2014.

Alibaba’s market value of $168 billion is now a sliver of Amazon’s $1 trillion. Search giant Baidu (BIDU) goes for 11 times earnings, and videogame maker NetEase (NTES), 13 times. The selloff this past week was “disconnected from fundamentals” and “presents an opportunity,” argue strategists at J.P. Morgan in a note.

But I’m wondering whether China has become uninvestible. Or more specifically, is the best allocation for U.S. investors zero, indefinitely?

I laid out the bear case this past week (“Chinese Stocks Are a Screaming Bargain. Don’t Buy Them.”). American depositary receipts don’t give U.S. investors ownership rights in China, and economic relations between the two countries are increasingly thorny. Xi Jinping, the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao, sparked the latest selloff by replacing market-friendly technical experts in his leadership group with yes men. What’s to stop Xi from taking aggressive action against U.S. investors or the companies that have raised money from them?

China ADRs, after all, are based on an irreconcilable hypocrisy. Companies raise money in two main ways: borrowing (bonds) and selling part ownership (stocks). China bans foreign ownership in broad swaths of its economy. But its companies want U.S. cash and trading liquidity. And U.S. investors, during a decade of near-zero interest rates, were up for just about anything. So, Chinese companies created offshore “variable interest entities,” or VIEs, with rights to a cut of their income, and sold ownership in these.

U.S. regulators don’t love the arrangement because Chinese companies have spotty financial reporting. That’s by design; China views many accounting details as state secrets. U.S. lawmakers have told these companies to comply or delist, and China says it will provide more financial information, but there’s also a three-year period that companies can use to set up secondary listings, and some have done just that in Hong Kong. These H shares, as they’re called, also offer VIE exposure rather than true ownership.

Now, I’d like to give the bull case a fair hearing. It comes from Jason Hsu, a renowned market researcher turned money manager, first in the U.S. and now in China, through Rayliant Asset Management.

“The pendulum always swings to the extreme,” says Hsu of fears that U.S. stock investment in China is built on shaky ground. “I think there’s too pessimistic an assumption as to the Chinese authorities’ interest in essentially blowing that up and wiping out global investors.” One of Xi’s goals is to make China’s renminbi a global currency and competitor to the U.S. dollar, says Hsu. Weaponizing renminbi-based assets would undermine that goal. “He wouldn’t do that,” he says.

Hsu says that investors who have the option of selling China ADRs and buying comparable Hong Kong shares should do so, and capture any tax loss. Alibaba has applied to convert its secondary Hong Kong shares into primary shares at the end of this year, which would make it eligible for the Stock Connect program that links trading in Hong Kong and mainland China. Hsu expects more of that, with some companies fully repatriating their listings by issuing mainland shares while buying Hong Kong ones. “That problem will be solved,” he says. “It will not be solved in a way that is just outright robbing existing shareholders.”

Meanwhile, UBS points out that Chinese shares are the cheapest in a decade, and that positive policy surprises could create a sharp rally, but that it’s waiting for more certainty. It recommends that investors stick with a 3% stock weighting in China, equal to its share of the world’s stock markets. And I’m still unclear on why long-term savers need even the 3%. U.S. tech giants are slumping. But so is Alibaba, which has announced layoffs amid declines in revenue and profits.

The new case for China seems to be that capitalism and freedom are out of the question, but that shares are pricing in the potential for confiscation, and that won’t happen, either. I prefer the pitch from 30 years ago, when at least it came with a sandwich.

Barrons : Take Another Look at This Chip Stock. Shares Could Soar 40%.

Take Another Look at This Chip Stock. Shares Could Soar 40%.

Dutch semiconductor-equipment maker ASML Holding has had a rough year as inflation sparked a consumer slowdown and a slump in demand that has weighed on the industry.

The stock (ticker: ASML.Netherlands) has lost 30.3% this year, to 493.60 euros ($486.32). But some upbeat developments could drive the price higher.

ASML is a leading manufacturer of lithography machines used by major semiconductor makers to print dense circuits used in everything from smartphones to autos. The company has pioneered extreme ultraviolet lithography, or EUV, which uses light with a shorter wavelength to etch smaller features, resulting in faster and more powerful chips.

Taiwan Semiconductor (2330.Taiwan), ASML’s biggest customer, warned in October of a cut to capital expenditure, noting weaker demand. Also, the U.S. has new rules limiting the export of chips and related equipment to China.

But the bulk of ASML’s revenue comes from machines making less sophisticated deep ultraviolet technology, or DUVs, which are unaffected by restrictions. And it doesn’t sell its EUV technology in China.

That said, ASML in July lowered guidance for annual revenue growth to 10% from 20%. ASML in October said guidance had improved, but didn’t provide a percentage.

The drop in guidance had more to do with timing and when ASML can book revenue, rather than a drop in orders. Demand continues to exceed supply, and ASML has dispatched machines to customers before final quality-control checks, which shaves a month off its manufacturing process. Final checks are completed at the customer’s site, a process ASML calls “fast shipments.”

While this means payments are deferred until after those final checks, it also means ASML has about €2.8 billion locked in for 2023 shipments.

If fast shipments become the norm and auditors approve a transition to recognize revenue at time of shipment, C.J. Muse, an analyst at Evercore, notes there would be “a meaningful benefit to revenue” earlier than expected.

Another upside is the long lead time of 18 months to manufacture a machine. That means customers are less likely to cancel orders, for fear of losing their place and having to start over.

Muse forecasts the stock could increase nearly 40%, to €575, writing that “ASML’s growth story remains locked-in today, highlighting numerous tailwinds facing the company into next year.” The business has a market value of €160 billion and fetches a multiple of 22.7 times this year’s expected earnings, in line with peers.

The company beat third-quarter earnings estimates, with net income of €1.7 billion on revenue of €5.8 billion. ASML said it expects fourth-quarter sales of €6.1 billion to €6.6 billion. Analysts expect €6.3 billion, according to FactSet.

“While some customers are now adjusting the desired timing of their demand, the vast majority of our customers are still requesting shipment of their lithography systems as soon as possible,” ASML CEO Peter Wennick told Barron’s in a statement. He added that “our 2023 shipment demand is still significantly above our build and shipment capacity for next year.”

The next catalyst for the business will be Nov. 11, when ASML is set to give analysts an update on future revenue. Muse estimates the company will raise 2025 forecasts to about €30 billion from a previous range of €24 billion to €30 billion.

ASML’s shares are likely to get a boost as next-generation lithography technology is adopted at a faster-than-expected pace. That means this big European tech stock is in a good position to outpace its competitors.

FT : New York labours to raise flood defences a decade after Hurricane Sandy

New York labours to raise flood defences a decade after Hurricane Sandy
The city is preparing for a future of increased coastal flooding and larger storms

In April, authorities in Battery Park City, a neighbourhood on Manhattan’s south-west tip, began painting sections of the lamp posts along the waterfront light blue. This was not a matter of decor. Rather, it was an attempt by local authorities to impress upon residents just how high the tide may climb in future storms. From lamp post to lamp post, the light blue portions ranged from 9-13 feet above an esplanade that is, itself, 10 feet above sea level.

“Standing next to these poles and looking at them really strikes a chord,” said BJ Jones, the president of the Battery Park City Authority, which oversees the neighbourhood. “It’s a good visual besides looking at maps of flood plain elevation.”

Saturday marks 10 years since Hurricane Sandy made landfall in New York City, killing 43 residents, causing $19bn in damage — much of it from flooding — and awakening residents to a vulnerability many had not previously appreciated. As that anniversary approaches, the city’s efforts to improve defences in low-lying neighbourhoods such as Battery Park City are at last becoming visible, even if they are still far from complete.

Building codes have been tightened. More than $11bn in federal funds have been spent to repair properties and infrastructure, and in many cases reinforce them to better withstand future floods. Perhaps most dramatically, workers have at last broken ground on the first of a ring of new defences that will, perhaps by 2030, gird lower Manhattan.

“New York is much better protected than it was a decade ago — and it’s also still nowhere near where it needs to be,” is how Rohit Aggarwala, New York City’s chief climate officer, assessed the situation.

Certainly, New Yorkers’ mentality has changed. Prior to Sandy, Aggarwala was working on sustainability issues for Mayor Michael Bloomberg when he encountered a real estate lobbyist who rejected the suggestion that buildings’ mechanical systems might be removed from basements and placed on higher floors so they would be less vulnerable to floods.

“‘That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. There’s rentable space on the second floor!’” Aggarwala recalled the lobbyist complaining.

The idea seemed less crazy after 2mn residents lost power due to Sandy, in some cases for weeks. At Bellevue Hospital, hundreds of patients had to be evacuated after the failure of back-up power systems whose critical components were located in the basement and swamped by the East River.

New York began studying the lessons of Sandy almost immediately, and then drafting a series of plans — and then revised plans — to adapt for the future. The objective, according to Aggarwala, is not to prevent all flooding but to try to ensure that critical systems can return to service within hours — not days — if water rushes in.

After 400 years of a relatively mild climate, the city is not only facing the growing risk of coastal flooding but also extreme heat and interior flooding from larger storms that drop more rain.

“Every time we plant a tree or repave a sidewalk or build a road” it should in some way be regarded as a climate resiliency project, Shaun Donovan, who led the Obama administration’s Hurricane Sandy Task Force, said at an event this week to commemorate the 10-year anniversary.

So far, the effort has been “plodding”, according to a report released earlier this month by New York City’s comptroller. It also warned that the city faced mounting danger as ever more of its property fell into an expanding flood zone. By 2050, that will encompass more than a quarter of its public housing.

That assessment may change now that work has begun in earnest on a U-shaped barrier of defences to protect lower Manhattan from rising sea levels. Engineers have broken ground on a section that will protect the east side, below 25th Street, and will do so any day now on a companion that will hug Battery Park City on the south-west edge of the island.

The objective is to prepare for what city forecasters predict a 100-year storm might bring in the year 2050, by which time sea levels are expected to be 2.5 feet higher than they are today. To achieve that, engineers have planned a series of hidden — and not-so-hidden — interventions along the Battery Park esplanade.

In some places, they will take the shape of a physical wall or retractable floodgate. In others, it is the introduction of undulating berms along a cycle route. Then there is Wagner Park, which is particularly low ground. It will be raised 10-feet with extensive use of landfill and clever landscaping. What looks like tiered seating in a public park will, in fact, be a barrier against rising seas.

“You wouldn’t really know walking by it that it’s a flood resiliency component,” said Gwen Dawson, who oversees planning and design for the Battery Park City Authority.

Battery Park City was, itself, once water. The residential development was created in the 1970s on land reclaimed from the Hudson River with millions of cubic feet of soil excavated from the base of the nearby World Trade Center. Developers incorporated a small seawall, but nothing of the magnitude necessary to deal with coming storms.

“There was not any serious consideration of sea level rise or the impact of climate change,” said Dawson. “What we found out in Sandy is that we were very close to having much worse outcomes.”

It was always going to take time to devise a coherent system, say city officials, while adhering to the constraints of federal contracting laws. Another drag on the process has been the difficulty of winning public approval to alter public spaces — even in a city where residents overwhelmingly accept the threat posed by climate change.

“It was: ‘Oh, you’re ruining our park.’ No, we’re saving it,’” Gernot Wagner, a Columbia University economist who serves on the city’s panel on climate change, said, recalling the civic battles that erupted over plans to fortify the east side.

At the local level, where so many decisions are made, too many incentives point in the wrong direction, Wagner complained. After a disaster, for example, local politicians inevitably vow to rebuild things as they were, and the federal government supplies money to do so.

Still, he seemed more inclined to celebrate than despair as the Sandy anniversary neared. “It took almost a decade,” said Wagner, “but now it’s happening.”

FT : Japan unleashes $200bn stimulus

Japan unleashes $200bn stimulus
Fumio Kishida says package will cut consumer inflation even as Bank of Japan keeps ultra-loose policy

The Japanese government on Friday unveiled Y29.1tn ($197bn) in fresh spending to ease the impact on consumers of soaring commodity prices and a falling yen, while the Bank of Japan stuck by its ultra-loose policy.

Prime minister Fumio Kishida unveiled the stimulus package, which includes subsidised electricity and gas bills for households and coupons for pregnant women, just hours after Bank of Japan governor Haruhiko Kuroda ruled out any early rise in interest rates.

Kishida said the spending package, which will cut household energy costs, was expected to bring down Japan’s consumer inflation rate by more than 1.2 percentage points. He said it would add about 4.6 per cent to real gross domestic product, but gave no timeframe.

Japan’s inflation rate, at 3 per cent in September, is much lower than price rises in the US and Europe. But Kishida has come under pressure to take tougher measures to tackle higher living costs amid a sharp fall in his public approval ratings.

Since September, Japanese authorities have carried out at least two interventions to prop up the yen, which has fallen to 32-year lows because of the widening gulf between the BoJ’s super-dovish policy and tightening by most other big central banks.

While the European Central Bank on Thursday raised interest rates to their highest level since 2009, the BoJ kept overnight rates on hold at minus 0.1 per cent and continued to cap 10-year bond yields at about zero per cent.

The widely expected BoJ decision, made at a time of exceptional volatility in currency markets, initially sent the yen slightly higher to ¥146.21 to the dollar. But the currency later fell to below ¥147 after Kuroda made clear he was not considering early action to raise interest rates.

“We are getting closer to achieving our 2 per cent [core consumer inflation] target,” Kuroda said, but added: “We are not thinking of a rate hike or an exit anytime soon.” 

Japan’s central bank also announced it would increase the frequency of its bond-buying in November to defend its control of the yield curve, even though the policy of suppressing longer term interest rates has effectively choked off trading in the 10-year JGB market.

The BoJ sharply upgraded its core consumer inflation forecast to 2.9 per cent from the 2.3 per cent projected in July for the year ending March 2023, while lowering its real GDP forecast to growth of 2 per cent from 2.4 per cent. The BoJ forecast did not take into account the new stimulus spending.

But the central bank expects inflation to fall to 1.6 per cent in both fiscal 2023 and 2024. Kuroda has argued that underlying demand in the economy remained too weak for it to shift to policy tightening.

So far, Kishida has expressed support for the BoJ policy, but some analysts said the central bank might come under increasing political pressure as the government shifts its focus to tackling rising living costs.

“With the yen becoming a political issue and with the Kishida administration’s approval rate falling, it is questionable how long it can tolerate a situation where the government is carrying out interventions to stem the yen’s fall while the BoJ’s monetary policy is facing in a completely different direction,” said Tetsufumi Yamakawa, head of Japan economic research at Barclays.