The Bank of Japan decided to leave its massive monetary easing policy unchanged at its monetary policy meeting on Wednesday, maintaining a short-term policy interest rate of minus 0.1 percent and a long-term interest rate of around zero percent.
It will also continue to purchase exchange-traded funds so that the amount outstanding will increase at an annual pace of about 6 trillion yen.
To achieve its goal of 2 percent inflation, the central bank determined it was necessary to continue its current ultralow interest rate policy.
At its previous policy meeting in late July, the central bank approved a modified monetary easing policy and decided to expand the range of fluctuations in the long-term interest rate to about double the conventional range of about plus or minus 0.1 percent, effectively approving a rise in the long-term interest rate to around 0.2 percent. The move was aimed at reinvigorating the government bond market.
In its latest meeting, the central bank reviewed the effect of the modified monetary easing policy and opted to maintain the policy for the time being.
The central bank also decided to maintain the wording of its forward guidance for interest rates adopted at its July meeting, declaring the current extremely low short- and long-term interest rate levels will remain "for an extended period of time."
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