By Lisa Twaronite TOKYO (Reuters) - Abenomics' massive monetary stimulus was supposed to depress long-term interest rates to spur economic activity, but the Japanese government bond market has other ideas. Banks, unable to make money on their Japanese government bonds (JGBs) anymore, have begun sloughing off their holdings, putting upward pressure on yields. Major banks sold off about 11 percent of their holdings in April alone.

Brazil's Central Bank hiked the benchmark interest rate by 0.50 points to 8.0 percent Wednesday in a bid to control rising inflation. The bank's monetary policy panel said the increase should rein in inflation "and help keep that trend on course into next year," an official statement said. Last month, the bank's monetary policy committee pushed the rate up by 0.25 points to 7.5 percent, the first increase since July 2011. Experts were alarmed in March when it was confirmed that 12-month inflation reached 6.59 percent, above the official upper limit of 6.5 percent.

By Kim Soo-yeon SEOUL, June 13 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's central bank is likely to revise up its 2013 growth estimate as its latest rate cut in May combined with the government's fiscal stimulus will help prop up Asia's fourth-largest economy, its chief said Thursday. Bank of Korea (BOK) Gov. Kim Choong-soo said that the bank's full-year growth estimate of 2.6 percent is likely to be raised possibly by 0.2 percentage point.

TOKYO (Reuters) - A senior Bank of Japan official said on Thursday that price hikes caused solely by a weak yen could hurt economic recovery, stressing the need for inflation to accompany balanced growth. "If price hikes are caused solely by a weak yen, that would be cost-push (inflation) and thus could negatively affect a steady economic recovery," BOJ Executive Director Masayoshi Amamiya said at a parliamentary committee session.