The Bank of Japan decided in its meeting held on the morning of Tuesday, January 18th, by a majority of 8-1, to maintain the current negative interest rate of -0.10% as expected, and the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank decided to continue the process of buying assets and bonds with the same amount without changing.
The bank is buying ETFs at 12 trillion yen and J-REITs at 180 billion yen, while the bank is buying CP bonds and corporate bonds with a maximum of 20 trillion yen until the end of March 2022.
The bank changed its view of inflation for the first time since 2014, and hinted that it is not immune from rising, as is the global trend, and believes that it is expected to exceed expectations.
In its quarterly economic outlook report, the bank lowered its growth forecast for the year ending 2021 to 2.8%, compared to 3.4% in October estimates, and raised it to 3.8% for the current year 2022, compared to 2.9% in October estimates, while the bank expects inflation to reach 1.1%.
This year, compared to 0.9% in October estimates. The Japanese yen is trading at 114.90 levels against the US dollar, down more than 30 pips since the meeting and after testing 115.08 levels.