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BOJ's communication about-face may haunt future rate moves
The Bank of Japan managed to calm investor nerves during global market turmoil this week by reversing a calibrated strategy to communicate steady interest-rate rises, but the flip-flop tests the bank's resolve to phase out decades of radical stimulus. If the central bank, scarred by missteps and reversals going back a quarter century, is at the mercy of markets, it may be constrained in moving away from what it has called excessive support for the world's fourth-biggest economy. The yen spiked and Tokyo shares plummeted last week as the BOJ unexpectedly raised its policy rate from essentially zero to the highest in ... (full story)