Bank of Japan
Bank of Japan Stays Its Course
January 23, 2018
The board of the Bank of Japan deliberated over two days for a combined four hours 35 minutes and arrived at the same decision as in December or October for that matter when the previous Outlook for Economic Activity and Prices was prepared. The vote at all three meetings was the same, 8-1, with Goushi […] More
Trump Grabs Spotlight… Japan Also in the News
January 23, 2018
President Trump is on a roll. Having secured a tax cut with benefits skewed to the rich and then trapping congressional democrats in a political snake pit over immigration, he’s turned his sight on the biggest campaign promise of all: so-called fair trade. A 30% tariff on U.S. imports of foreign-made solar equipment threatens to […] More
Firmer Yen
January 9, 2018
The Japanese yen advanced 0.4% overnight against the dollar and by even more versus main European currencies. Investors reacted after the Bank of Japan bought fewer 10-year and longer JGBs in its operations today, which kindled suspicion the quantitative stimulus may be throttled back in 2018. The Japanese Nikkei-225 share price index climbed 0.6%, but […] More
Bank of Japan Maintains Status Quo
December 21, 2017
The Bank of Japan has a stimulative monetary policy that goes by the title of “quantitative and qualitative easing(QQE) with yield control.” The unchanged settings at the final scheduled policy review of 2018 A Policy-Balance interest rate of negative 0.1% A target 10-year JGB yield of “around 1.0%” JGB purchases of roughly 80 trillion yen […] More
Tax Bill Aftermath
December 21, 2017
The most prominent market reaction to the U.S. tax overhaul has been the rise in long-term interest rates, although the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield settled back two basis points in overnight futures trading. The 10-year gilt and 10-year German bund yields rose another 2 and 1 basis points. Congress is not trying to avert a […] More
Bank of Japan Keeps Existing Policy Settings
October 31, 2017
The Bank of Japan Board released both a statement and a fresh quarterly Outlook for Economic Activity and Prices after its latest policy review, a two-day meeting that consumed a total four hours seven minutes of discussion. The Outlook is the more informative document as it provides extensive background regarding current economic conditions, the baseline […] More
Mixed News at Month End
October 31, 2017
The dollar traded up by 0.6% against the kiwi, 0.4% relative to the Swiss franc and Australian dollar, and 0.2% vis-a-vis the yen, euro and loonie. The dollar is unchanged against sterling and 0.3% and 0.2% softer against the peso and yuan. In stock market action, share prices rose 0.9% in South Korea and 0.5% […] More
Bank of Japan
September 21, 2017
Following four hours and 52 minutes of deliberation over two days, the Bank of Japan’s nine-person Board agreed to leave policy as is, with a -0.1% marginal short-term interest rate, a target of “around zero percent” in the 10-year JGB sovereign debt yield, and continuing quantitative stimulus for “as long as it is necessary for […] More
Bank of Japan: Same old, Same old
July 20, 2017
Japanese monetary policy, although institutionally independent, suffers from chronically rigid thinking. The latest policy review produced 1) unchanged policy settings,2) another 7-2 vote with Kiuchi and Sato objecting to the majority’s policy preference for the same reasons that they have dissented at countless prior meetings, and 3) yet another outward push in the collective projected […] More
Bank of Japan
April 27, 2017
After meeting for five hours and sixteen minutes over two days, the BOJ Policy Board released a monetary policy statement that reads the same verbatim as the prior March document including footnoted text explaining the dissenting views of committee hawks Sato and Kiuchi. A new quarterly Outlook for Economic Activity and Prices was published concurrently […] More
