HomeCentral BanksBank of Japan(BOJ) Statement on Monetary Policy - October 31, 2017

(BOJ) Statement on Monetary Policy – October 31, 2017

At the Monetary Policy Meeting held today, the Policy Board of the Bank of Japan decided upon the following. [Note 1]

(1) Yield curve control

The Bank decided, by an 8-1 majority vote, to set the following guideline for market operations for the intermeeting period. [Note 2]

The short-term policy interest rate:

The Bank will apply a negative interest rate of minus 0.1 percent to the Policy-Rate Balances in current accounts held by financial institutions at the Bank.

The long-term interest rate:

The Bank will purchase Japanese government bonds (JGBs) so that 10-year JGB yields will remain at around zero percent. With regard to the amount of JGBs to be purchased, the Bank will conduct purchases at more or less the current pace — an annual pace of increase in the amount outstanding of its JGB holdings of about 80 trillion yen — aiming to achieve the target level of the long-term interest rate specified by the guideline.

(2) Guidelines for asset purchases

With regard to asset purchases other than JGB purchases, the Bank decided, by a unanimous vote, to set the following guidelines.

a) The Bank will purchase exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and Japan real estate investment trusts (J-REITs) so that their amounts outstanding will increase at annual paces of about 6 trillion yen and about 90 billion yen, respectively.

b) As for CP and corporate bonds, the Bank will maintain their amounts outstanding at about 2.2 trillion yen and about 3.2 trillion yen, respectively.

[Note 1] With a view to reinforcing the inflation-overshooting commitment, Mr. G. Kataoka dissented from the decision, considering that, if there was a delay in the timing of achieving the price stability target due to domestic factors, the Bank should take additional easing measures and that it was necessary to include that in the text.

[Note 2] Voting for the action: Mr. H. Kuroda, Mr. K. Iwata, Mr. H. Nakaso, Mr. Y. Harada, Mr. Y. Funo, Mr. M. Sakurai, Ms. T. Masai, and Mr. H. Suzuki. Voting against the action: Mr. G. Kataoka. Mr. G. Kataoka dissented, considering that, with a view to lowering the interest rates with longer maturities of the yield curve, it was appropriate for the Bank to purchase JGBs so that 15-year JGB yields would remain at less than 0.2 percent.

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