Bank of Japan eases monetary policy
The Bank of Japan boosted its asset purchase programme today, following similar moves from the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank.
Japan’s central bank, with the aim of boosting its flagging economy, today increased its asset programme to 80 trillion yen (£623bn) from 70 trillion yen.
The 10 trillion yen increase will be spent on government bonds and treasury discount bills.
The bank left interest rates unchanged at between zero and 0.1 per cent.
The Nikkei jumped on the news, to close at a four-month high today.
Gerard Lane, analyst at Shore Capital, said today: “The monetary policy board also downgraded its economic view saying that economic activity in Japan has come to a pause while overseas economies have moved deeper into a slowdown.
“The actions of the Bank are likely to be ‘good news’ for risk assets around the world.”