The Bank of Japan (BoJ) announced on Friday that it is keeping its key interest rate at a negative 0.1%. It said it will also continue to purchase a necessary amount of bonds without an upper limit to keep the 10-year yields at around 0%, allowing them to fluctuate between a negative and positive 0.5 percentage points from the target level. It added it will conduct yield curve control "with greater flexibility, regarding the upper and lower bounds of the range as references, not as rigid limits."
The BoJ said the Japanese economy is likely to continue recovering moderately for the time being. Inflation is expected to decelerate before picking up again moderately. The bank warned of "extremely high uncertainties" surrounding the domestic and overseas economic activity and prices, stating that it is "necessary to pay due attention" to developments in financial and foreign exchange markets while continuing monetary easing.
