The rise in the value of bitcoin holds the potential to boost the economic growth of Japan.

This was the assessment of analysts from a financial holdings firm in Japan called Nomura.

According to a report, analysts Yoshiyuki Suimon and Kazuki Miyamoto said that the “wealth effect” stemming from the massive gains in the price of bitcoin could lead to an increase in the country’s GDP by 0.3%.

““Rises in asset values often result in a rise in consumer spending, too, known as the wealth effect,” wrote the team’s leader, Suimon.

“We estimate the wealth effect from unrealized gains on bitcoin trading by Japanese investors since the start of fiscal year 2017, and estimate a potential boost to consumer spending of 23.2-96.0 billion yen.”

Suimon’s team noted:

“Moreover, the fact that the rise in bitcoin prices was concentrated in 2017 Q4 could result in the wealth effect materializing in 2018 Q1, and if that is the case, we estimate a potential boost to real GDP growth on an annualized quarter-on-quarter basis of up to about 0.3 percentage points.”

Describing the “wealth effect” as the rise in consumer spending resulting from a surge in asset values, the team further stated,

“Although Japanese investors’ unrealized gains are unlikely to feed straight through to their patterns of consumption, it is common knowledge that personal consumption is bolstered as a result of increases in the value of asset holdings.”

According to a separate report, the Nomura team also recognized a statement from the governor of Bank of Japan, Haruhiko Kuroda, who said in last month that speculation has led to the soaring in bitcoin price.