(Bloomberg) -- Japanese bonds suffered the heaviest selling by foreign investors in more than a year last week, as the country’s central bank raised its short-term policy rate for the first time in 17 years.

Global investors unloaded ¥3.89 trillion ($25.7 billion) of local debt on a net basis in the week that ended March 22, the most since January 2023, preliminary data from the Ministry of Finance show. The outflow almost matches the total purchases made by overseas funds in the preceding three weeks.

The data don’t provide a breakdown of investor categories, their locations or the types of debt involved.

The selling was a natural outcome of the Bank of Japan’s widely anticipated but historic decision last week to scrap the world’s last negative interest rate and yield-curve control. Despite the outflow, Japan’s benchmark bond yields still finished the week lower, with investors’ focus now shifting to how soon the BOJ may hike rates again, a decision complicated by a weakening yen.

“It was during central bank week and for foreign investors it looks like they saw it was a good timing to sell long-end bonds,” said Shoki Omori, chief desk strategist at Mizuho Securities Co. “It also looks like it has been a good profit-taking timing for both bonds and equities.”

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