At the Monetary Policy Meeting held today, the Policy Board of the Bank of Japan decided upon the following. (1) Yield curve control: a) The Bank decided, by a unanimous vote, to set the following guideline for market operations for the intermeeting period. 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 a necessary amount of Japanese government bonds (JGBs) without setting an upper limit so that 10-year JGB yields will ... (full story)

Japan’s central bank maintained its ultra-loose policy and left rates unchanged on Friday, mindful of the “extremely high uncertainties” on the growth outlook domestically and globally. In a policy statement after its September policy meeting, the Bank of Japan said it would maintain short-term interest rates at -0.1%, and cap the 10-year Japanese government bond yield around zero. At the last policy meeting in July, the Bank of Japan loosened its yield curve control to allow longer term rates to move more in tandem with rising inflation. It was Ueda’s first policy change since assuming office in April. The move to ... (full story)

The USD/JPY pair regains positive traction during the Asian session on Friday and the buying interest picks up pace after the Bank of Japan (BoJ) announced its policy decision. Spot prices climb back above the 148.00 mark in the last hour and remain well within the striking distance of the YTD peak touched on Thursday. The Japanese central bank, as was widely anticipated, decided to leave its monetary policy settings unchanged and fell short of offering any forward guidance. This marks a big divergence in comparison to the Federal Reserve's (Fed) hawkish outlook, which continues to underpin the US Dollar (USD) and ... (full story)