TOKYO, 10 MAR – The Central Bank of Japan (BoJ) is not holding any surprises and decides to keep the current ultra-expansionary monetary policy unchanged. At the end of the two-day meeting, the last of the current governor Haruhiko Kuroda – whose mandate expires in early April – the committee chose to leave short-term rates in negative territory at -0.1%, continuing the massive plan purchase of bonds. The yield control curve (Ycc) in force since September 2016, when the BoJ set a 0% target for 10-year government bonds, has not changed either. Kuroda therefore ends his second five-year term without having achieved the objective of a stable inflation of 2% considered “healthy”; a target that according to the Japanese press has been used several times by the institute to justify monetary policy decisions “sometimes surprising” by the financial markets. After the world’s third-largest economy grew anemic by 0.1% in the fourth quarter of 2022, the BoJ maintained its view for an “accelerating” expansion, despite recent commodity hikes. Kuroda will be replaced by 71-year-old academic Kazuo Ueda, formerly a member of the central bank’s executive committee, who – according to analysts – while not decreeing a change of pace in accommodating monetary policy, will gradually begin to limit its scope. (HANDLE).
(ANSA)
