Bank of Japan keeps discount rate at negative level

The Bank of Japan will apply a negative interest rate of minus 0.1% to the Policy-Rate Balances in current accounts held by financial institutions at the Bank, Report informs referring to the bank’s website.

The Bank will purchase a necessary amount of Japanese government bonds (JGBs) without setting an upper limit so that 10-year JGB yields will remain at around zero percent.

The Bank will purchase exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and Japan real estate investment trusts (J-REITs) as necessary with upper limits of about 12 trillion yen and about 180 billion yen, respectively, on annual paces of increase in their amounts outstanding.

The Bank will purchase CP and corporate bonds with an upper limit on the amount outstanding of about 20 trillion yen in total until the end of March 2022. From April onward, it will purchase these assets at about the same pace as prior to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, so that their amounts outstanding will gradually return to pre-pandemic levels, namely, about 2 trillion yen for CP and about 3 trillion yen for corporate bonds.

Concerning risks to the outlook, the course of COVID-19, including variants, and its impact on domestic and overseas economies continue to warrant attention.

In addition, there are extremely high uncertainties over how the situation surrounding Ukraine will affect Japan's economic activity and prices, mainly through developments in global financial and capital markets, commodity prices, and overseas economies.

The Bank will closely monitor the impact of COVID-19 and will not hesitate to take additional easing measures if necessary, and also it expects short- and long term policy interest rates to remain at their present or lower levels.

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