The Bank of Japan announced in its meeting this morning, Friday 17th of December, that it kept the current interest rates unchanged as expected at -0.10%.

The bank announced plans to scale back its coronavirus emergency economic support program and cut its purchases of corporate debt to pre-pandemic levels in a move similar to what the Federal Reserve did midweek to tighten monetary policy.

In terms of the asset purchase program, the Bank of Japan is buying exchange-traded funds (ETFs) at a maximum of 12 trillion yen and J-REITs with a maximum of 180 billion yen.

The Japanese yen against the US dollar did not react to the statement and is trading at 113.59 levels, rising for the second consecutive session.