TOKYO, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- Japan's central bank on Thursday maintained its economic assessment of eight of the country's nine regions, with one region's economic assessment upgraded.

According to the Bank of Japan's (BOJ) quarterly assessment of regional economies for October, most of the eight regions maintained the assessment suggesting "the economy has been picking up moderately," or "the economy has been picking up as a whole."

However, soaring inflation and a persistently weak yen have led to a murky outlook for the country's economy as a whole, a BOJ official said.

Chugoku in western Japan was the only region whose assessment was upgraded from the previous report that mentioned downward pressure. The latest report suggests that "the economy has been picking up moderately."

The eight regions that saw their assessment retained by the central bank include the Kanto-Koshinetsu area, which comprises Tokyo, as well as Kinki, which covers Osaka.

Some company officials, according to local media, were quoted in the report as saying that consumers have become more budget-minded amid soaring inflation, while others expected a further recovery in the services sector, aided by the fading coronavirus impact and a revival in inbound tourism.

While central banks in the United States and other major economies have been hiking their interest rates to tame skyrocketing inflation, the BOJ continues to be a global outlier, believing such inflation to be temporary and staying committed to its ultra-loose monetary policy, with its key interest rate remaining in negative territory.

The interest rate gap between the BOJ and its global peers has led the yen to weaken to its lowest level in over two decades against the U.S. dollar, pushing up the cost of importing fuel and food.

Japan's export-led economy should in theory be cheering a weaker yen as it sees exporters' overseas profits increase when repatriated on favorable exchange rates and overall competitiveness enhanced in international markets, but a persistently weak yen further inflates already inflated import prices.

Resource-poor Japan looking ahead, according to leading economists, could become further economically hamstrung as it is reliant on imports for 90 percent of its energy requirements and the so-called waning effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic are, at best, embryonic. Enditem.

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