TOKYO, July 6: Japan's central bank is looking increasingly lonely in its campaign to raise interest rates from zero as opponents ranging from the powerful Finance Ministry to the US Treasury Secretary gang up against It. says Reuters.

But most economists were still betting today that the Bank of Japan will stick to its guns and, for better or worse, sanction the economy’s first rate hike in a decade by the end of the year

Apparently unimpressed with recent brighter economic signs. US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers kept up the pressure on Wednesday before a weekend Group of Seven meet-

ing. saying Japan needed to ensure It gets its economy into a virtuous growth cycle.

Markets saw the comments, just ahead of the weekend G7 finance ministers meeting In southern Japan, as a veiled warning directed at a BOJ that Is itching to lift interest rates after more than 16 months of pushing them as low as they can go-

The bank views the policy as an emergency measure, but Washington and many senior Japanese government officials have grown used to the flood of easy money that has helped to prop up Japan's tentative recovery.