Bank of Japan Unanimously Maintains Policy

The Bank of Japan decided Wednesday to maintain its current aggressive monetary easing policy aimed at beating deflation and upgraded the country’s economic assessment, at a time when consumption and exports have started to recover, backed by a weakening yen and rising stocks.

Lifting the economic assessment for a fifth month in a row, the central bank said “Japan’s economy has started picking up,” revising upward its description at the previous policy meeting on April 26 saying that it “has stopped weakening and has shown some signs of picking up.”

According to a statement released after a two-day policy meeting, the nine-member Policy Board unanimously decided that the BOJ will increase the monetary base at an annual pace of around 60 trillion yen to 70 trillion yen, in line with measures announced in April.

The policy measures announced on April 4 to achieve a 2 percent inflation target in about two years also include additional purchases of government bonds and riskier financial assets such as exchange-traded funds.

“Exports have stopped decreasing as overseas economies have been moving out of the deceleration phase that had continued since last year and are gradually heading toward a pickup,” the BOJ said in the statement.

via Mainichi

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