Bloomberg Sweden’s central bank formally ended a program of bond purchases after almost three years, but pledged support for the nation’s debt market into 2019 in a step designed to ensure a smooth retreat from record stimulus. In the Stockholm-based Riksbank’s last meeting of 2017, policy makers kept their key interest rate unchanged at minus 0.5 percent, as expected by …

Bloomberg Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is likely to ask Governor Haruh- iko Kuroda to lead the Bank of Japan for another five years, according to a Kuroda associate and BOJ adviser. “I expect Kuroda will continue to be governor,” Masahiro Kawai said in an interview. The chances are “very high” because both Abe and Finance Minister Taro Aso have expressed …

Bloomberg Bangladesh is getting tough with the nation’s bankers as it attempts to avert a looming crisis caused by rising bad loans and weak capital ratios. The central bank said it ousted the chief executive officer of Farmers Bank, a small private-sector lender, accusing him of “gross irregularities in lending.” That followed the removal earlier in the month of the …