The Bank of Japan decided in its meeting this morning Friday, June 18, with a majority of seven members, to keep the current negative interest rates at 0.1% and announced that the bank will buy additional quantities of Japanese government bonds without setting an upper limit so that the Japanese government bond yields will remain for ten years. at zero percent levels. And the bank decided, by a majority of eight members, to extend the financing program period for a period of six months, ending at the end of March 2022, to support companies to face the effects of the Corona virus. Regarding the Bond Purchase Program guidance, the bank decided that it would buy exchange-traded funds known as ETFs with a maximum of 12 trillion yen in addition to buying J-REITs with a maximum of 180 billion yen and announced that the bank would buy CP and corporate bonds with a maximum of 20 trillion yen until the end of March 2022. The bank stressed that the quantitative and qualitative monetary easing program will continue until the goal of price stability or the bank’s target for inflation of 2% is achieved, while monitoring developments in the impact of the Corona virus and taking any measures if necessary. On his part, Bank of Japan Governor Kuroda made statements during the press conference that followed the two-hour meeting that the Japanese economy is improving significantly and that the bank does not rule out the option of buying green bonds in the future. Official data released this morning showed that the Japanese CPI rose in May for the first time in 14 months, benefiting from the rise in energy prices. The Japanese yen has risen against the US dollar since the beginning of the session today, Friday, by more than 30 points, and is trading at 110.06 levels with the beginning of the European session, after testing 110.85 levels yesterday, its lowest level since last April.