diff --git a/cli/rt/40_repl.js b/cli/rt/40_repl.js
index 650fb7fc8dee94..bfd75860e93e1d 100644
--- a/cli/rt/40_repl.js
+++ b/cli/rt/40_repl.js
@@ -53,6 +53,12 @@
   // Returns true if code is consumed (no error/irrecoverable error).
   // Returns false if error is recoverable
   function evaluate(code) {
+    // It is a bit unexpected that { "foo": "bar" } is interpreted as a block
+    // statement rather than an object literal so we interpret it as an expression statement.
+    if (code.startsWith("{") && code.endsWith("}")) {
+      code = `(${code.trim()})`;
+    }
+
     // each evalContext is a separate function body, and we want strict mode to
     // work, so we should ensure that the code starts with "use strict"
     const [result, errInfo] = core.evalContext(`"use strict";\n\n${code}`);
diff --git a/cli/tests/integration_tests.rs b/cli/tests/integration_tests.rs
index 943e567998e46e..ddafe4aee95d6e 100644
--- a/cli/tests/integration_tests.rs
+++ b/cli/tests/integration_tests.rs
@@ -1057,6 +1057,19 @@ fn repl_test_console_log() {
   assert!(err.is_empty());
 }
 
+#[test]
+fn repl_test_object_literal() {
+  let (out, err) = util::run_and_collect_output(
+    true,
+    "repl",
+    Some(vec!["{ foo: 'bar' }"]),
+    Some(vec![("NO_COLOR".to_owned(), "1".to_owned())]),
+    false,
+  );
+  assert!(out.ends_with("{ foo: \"bar\" }\n"));
+  assert!(err.is_empty());
+}
+
 #[test]
 fn repl_cwd() {
   let (_out, err) = util::run_and_collect_output(