Economic Buzz: Bank Of Japan Keeps Policy Rate Unchanged

21 Jul 2022 , 11:19 AM

The Bank of Japan kept its ultra-loose monetary policy stance unchanged and raised its inflation outlook. The policy board maintained a negative interest rate of -0.1 percent on current accounts that financial institutions maintain at the central bank. The bank will also continue to purchase a necessary amount of Japanese government bonds without setting an upper limit so that 10-year JGB yields will remain at around zero percent. The bank will purchase 10-year JGBs at 0.25 percent every business day through fixed-rate purchase operations, unless it is highly likely that no bids will be submitted. In the latest outlook report, the BoJ raised its inflation outlook for the forecast period. The bank forecast consumer prices less fresh food, to climb 2.3 percent in the fiscal 2022, instead of 1.9 percent estimated previously. In FY2023, inflation is seen at 1.4 percent, up from 1.1 percent estimated in April. Similarly, the projection for FY 2024 was lifted to 1.3 percent from 1.1 percent. The real GDP outlook for the fiscal 2022 was downgraded to 2.4 percent from 2.9 percent. However, the bank raised its outlook for 2023 to 2.0 percent from 1.9 percent and that for 2024 to 1.3 percent from 1.1 percent. Powered by Commodity Insights