BOJ keeps monetary stimulus unchanged

Bloomberg

The Bank of Japan stayed the course with its monetary stimulus at Governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s final policy meeting before his new term begins next month. BOJ kept its yield-curve control settings and asset purchases unchanged, a result forecast by all economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
And with inflation still far from the BOJ’s target, Kuroda made it clear that the current stimulus program will remain in place for a while. “We’re not thinking at all about weakening the degree of easing, or changing the current monetary easing policy framework, before we achieve 2 percent,” Kuroda said during a news conference.
This puts the BOJ further behind its global peers, who are either raising interest rates or turning towards normalising policy. The European Central Bank unexpectedly dropped a pledge to ramp up bond buying if the economy deteriorates.
With a stronger yen threatening progress on inflation, economists have pushed back their forecast dates for changes to the BOJ’s stimulus. The currency has gained around 5 percent this year and last week it touched the strongest level since November 2016.
“Still-low inflation and growing external risks will keep the BOJ on a steady course in the coming months,” said Bloomberg Economics’ Yuki Masujima. “The BOJ may see some flexibility on its yield curve targets while it’s still in the process of driving inflation to 2 percent.” Kuroda told reporters that, in theory, the central bank could adjust its targeted yield for 10-year Japanese government bonds.
In its policy statement, the BOJ again said inflation expectations have been “more or less unchanged.”