SINGAPORE: Japanese rubber futures climbed on Tuesday, as the market held onto hopes for a smaller-than-anticipated rate hike, while a revised growth forecast from the World Bank lent some support.

The Osaka Exchange (OSE) rubber contract for September delivery was up 2.5 yen, or 1.2%, at 206.8 yen ($1.55) per kg as of 0215 GMT.

The rubber contract on the Shanghai futures exchange (SHFE) for September delivery was up 25 yuan, or 0.2%, at 11,690 yuan ($1,698.09) per tonne. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei average opened up 0.95%.

Japan’s new central bank governor Kazuo Ueda said on Monday it was appropriate to maintain the bank’s ultra-loose monetary policy for now as inflation has yet to hit 2% as a trend, suggesting he will be in no rush to dial back its massive stimulus.

Also on Monday, World Bank Group President David Malpass said that the lender has revised its 2023 global growth outlook slightly upward to 2% from a January forecast of 1.7% but the slowdown from stronger 2022 growth will increase debt distress for developing countries.

Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said on Tuesday that Japan would chair a Group of Seven (G7) financial leaders’ meeting on Wednesday in Washington to discuss the global economy and financial markets, the strengthening of supply chains and the Ukraine crisis. Stocks in Asia are buoyed by an optimistic sentiment of investors betting central banks in the region to go divergent with US Federal Reserve to end interest rate hike soon with the Fed to dish a smaller-than-anticipated interest rates hikes in May.

The front-month rubber contract on Singapore Exchange’s SICOM platform for May delivery last traded at 132.9 US cents per kg, up 0.2%.