The Bank of Japan has decided to maintain its large-scale monetary easing policy.
Since March, when the impact of the new coronavirus spread, the central bank has come up with a series of measures to address the problem. It aims to assess the effectiveness of the easing policy.
The Bank of Japan has increased its total funding support for companies from 75 trillion yen to 110 trillion yen, reflecting the expansion of effectively no-interest, unsecured loans provided by financial institutions under the second supplementary budget.
At a policy meeting held Tuesday, the Bank of Japan also maintained the ceiling on the purchase of exchange-traded funds, and its target of lowering the short-term interest rate to minus 1% and the long-term interest rate to about 0%.
The Bank of Japan has been strengthening its financial support for companies at its monetary policy meetings since March. It has raised its targt buying of corporate bonds and commercial paper issued by large companies to 20 trillion yen.
The central bank also introduced a system to provide loans at interest rates of 0% to financial institutions that lend to companies whose performance has deteriorated due to the new coronavirus. In late June, the central bank will start supplying funds to financial institutions that offer virtually interest-free, unsecured loans.
"The domestic economy is in a very severe condition," an official at the Bank of Japan said, with maintaining its stance of "taking additional monetary easing measures without hesitation if necessary."
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
