TOKYO (Reuters) – The Bank of Japan maintained ultra-low interest rates on Friday and its dovish guidance on future monetary policy, signalling it is in no rush to phase out its massive monetary stimulus.
At the two-day meeting that ended on Friday, the BOJ maintained a 0.1% interest charged on financial institutions’ excess reserves parked with the central bank, and a target for the 10-year government bond yield around 0%.
It also left unchanged a reference band allowing the 10-year bond yield to move 50 basis points up and down each around the 0% target, and a hard cap of 1.0% set in July.
In a statement announcing the decision, the BOJ repeated a pledge to maintain ultra-loose monetary policy “as long as necessary to maintain the (2% inflation) target in a stable manner.”
(Reporting by Leika Kihara and Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim)