Japan's central bank keeps monetary policy, cuts economic view
Date
3/15/2016 5:13:59 AM
(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) TOKYO March 15 (KUNA) -- Japan's central bank maintained its monetary policy on Tuesday but downgraded its assessment of the economy for the first time in almost two years.At the end of a two-day policy meeting Bank of Japan's (BOJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda and his board colleagues decided to keep its policy according to a statement released by the BOJ apparently in order to assess the impact of a negative interest rate policy it adopted in January."The BOJ will purchase Japanese government bonds so that their amount outstanding will increase at an annual pace of about JPY 80 trillion (USD 707 billion)" the central bank said in the statement. In January the BOJ made a surprise decision to introduce a negative interest rate for the first time ever to achieve its two-percent inflation target and revitalize the Japanese economy. Effective February 16 it applied an interest rate of minus 0.1 percent to part of accounts held by financial institutions at the central bank. The BOJ's decision came after the European Central Bank last week announced that it would cut negative rates further.Meanwhile the BOJ cut its view of the economy saying "Japan's economy has continued its moderate recovery trend." It was the first downgrade since April 2014. Last month the BOJ said the economy was "recovering moderately." "Overseas economies have continued to grow at a moderate pace but the pace of growth has somewhat decelerated mainly in emerging economies. In this situation the pick-up in exports has recently paused" it said. (end) mk.hb
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