For only the second time in nearly two decades, Japan’s central bank on Wednesday raised interest rates, a move that bolstered the country’s ailing currency and could help ease the burden of consumers paying more for imported essentials like food and energy.

       The Japanese central bank increased its target policy rate to 0.25 percent, up from a range of zero to 0.1 percent. The rate was last bumped up in March, when the bank raised interest rates for the first time since 2007.

       The Bank of Japan’s decision was closely watched by investors and economists in and outside Japan. There are indications that the slack yen has been holding back the spending power of Japanese consumers. Japan’s economy, the world’s fourth largest, shrank in two of the past three quarters.

       With inflation having exceeded policymakers’ target of 2 percent for more than two years, analysts and economists widely expected at least one additional rate increase this year. But the increase to 0.25 percent announced Wednesday came earlier than most expected.

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       The Bank of Japan has faced growing pressure this year to raise rates. Japan’s historically low interest rates — meant to encourage inflation during long periods when prices were barely growing — have weakened the yen. The low rates pushed some investors to seek higher returns overseas, particularly in the United States, where rates are much higher.

       The weakened yen has effectively bifurcated Japan’s economy: Large international corporations have benefited, while consumers and smaller domestic businesses have been squeezed. But warning signals flashed about diminished domestic consumption, and Japan has spent tens of billions of dollars this year buying yen to stabilize the currency.

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