As a result of the meeting of the Bank of Japan it was decided to keep the key rate at the same level – minus 0.1 percent. It meets the expectations of most analysts.
Bank said it intends to continue the implementation of the incentive program. Annual asset purchase volume remained unchanged – 80 trillion yen.
Japan Central Bank has changed its forecast for consumer price growth in the current fiscal year, which will end on March 31 next year. Now the bank expects that inflation in the country at year-end will be 0.8 percent, instead of 1.1 percent according to the previously published forecast.
Gross domestic product growth rate forecast for fiscal 2017 was raised from 1.8 to 1.9 percent.
As evidenced by the voting record, eight out of nine members of the Board of Governors of the Bank of Japan voted in favour of maintaining the current monetary policy parameters. The Kataoka State, which became a member of the Council this summer, has its own position on the Central Bank’s policies, which is different from that of the majority. In particular, he said that the Bank of Japan should take additional monetary easing measures if it faces problems in meeting its inflation target. Kataoka also proposed to target not 10-year but 15-year government bonds.