MARCHASIA BUSINESS OUTLOOK9T oyota officially announced on Tuesday an 11 billion real ($2.22 billion) investment in Brazil, which will be split into two parts by 2030 and will include the production of a new vehicle designed specifically for Brazilian customers. Geraldo Alckmin, Brazil's vice president and minister of industry, announced Toyota's investment on Sunday but did not provide details, including a time frame extension.Evandro Maggio, Toyota's CEO in Brazil, told Reuters that this is the automaker's first investment plan in the country, as it had previously announced its investments project by project. From the 11 billion reais, Maggio stated that 5 billion reais are expected to be invested until 2026, and another 6 billion reais, which Toyota has yet to decide.The automaker said in a statement it intends to build a new hybrid flex vehicle by 2025, and a car specially designed for the Brazilian market, without confirming a date. Toyota, which is latest global automaker to unveil plans for extra investment in Brazil this year, following companies such as Volkswagen, General Motors and Hyundai Motor, own three factories in the country, all located in Sao Paulo state.The investment plan also includes the expansion of its factories in Porto Feliz, where hybrid engines will be built by 2025, and Sorocaba, where batteries will be produced beginning in 2026. However, all operations at its Indaiatuba facility will be relocated to Sorocaba between 2025 and 2026. Maggio stated that workers will be able to migrate with the operations, as the cities are an hour apart by car. Momentum is building for the Bank of Japan to consider ending negative interest rates as early as this month, with upcoming annual wage negotiations expected to result in significant pay increases for the second year in a row.Despite recent economic weakness, BOJ policymakers have indicated that they intend to proceed with their plan to reduce stimulus, including Governor Kazuo Ueda, who provided an optimistic assessment of Japan's economic outlook last week. BOJ board member Naoki Tamura, a former commercial bank executive, has been the most vocal advocate for an early exit from negative rates, indicating in August last year that the bank could do so by March 2024.Fellow board member Hajime Takata also called for an overhaul of the BOJ's stimulus programme last week, saying that Japan was finally seeing prospects for durably achieving the bank's 2 per cent inflation target. At least one of the BOJ's nine board members is likely to say that removing negative interest rates would be reasonable at this month's policy meeting, Jiji news agency reported on Wednesday, without citing sources.The BOJ's decision to end negative interest rates would be a watershed moment, reversing more than a decade of a radical monetary experiment aimed at ending prolonged deflation and economic stagnation. With inflation exceeding its target for more than a year and the prospect of sustained wage gains growing, the BOJ has hinted at the end of negative interest rates in the near future.According to a Reuters poll conducted between February 15 and 20, more than 80 percent of economists expect the BOJ to end negative interest rates in April, with some betting on action at the March 18-19 meeting. If the majority of the nine-member board votes to end negative rates, it would pave the way for Japan's first rate hike since 2007. TOYOTA TO INVEST $2.22 BILLION IN BRAZIL FOR AUTOMOBILE PRODUCTIONBOJ TO END NEGATIVE RATES BY MARCH END
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