Tokyo, June 17 (Xinhua) — The Bank of Japan (BOJ) announced on Monday that it will maintain the policy interest rate at around 0.5% following a two-day monetary policy meeting.
The BOJ also decided to slow the pace of reducing government bond purchases, lowering the quarterly quota from 400 billion yen to 200 billion yen starting from April 2026.
After ending its negative interest rate policy and abolishing yield curve control in March 2024, the BOJ began gradually reducing the scale of government bond purchases.Experts have noted that the recent lack of investor interest in Japan’s ultra-long-term government bonds, coupled with plummeting prices and rising yields, influenced the BOJ’s decision.
In January 2025, the BOJ raised the policy interest rate from 0.25% to around 0.5%. The rate was kept unchanged in March due to concerns that US tariff policies could increase global economic uncertainty. The May monetary policy meeting also maintained this interest rate level.
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