Pedestrians walk past an electronic board showing stock market indices in Tokyo yesterday as Japan’s Nikkei share average soared to a one-week high after Bank of Japan’s announcement.
TOKYO: The Bank of Japan (BoJ) yesterday held off fresh monetary easing measures after weak growth data exacerbated fears about the economic impact of an April sales tax rise.
Wrapping up a two-day policy meeting, the BoJ said it would keep its massive easing programme in place, while tweaking a loan scheme to banks in a bid to stimulate lending to firms and consumers. “Japan’s economy has continued to recover moderately, and a front-loaded increase in demand prior to the consumption tax hike has recently been observed,” the BoJ said.
The sales tax hike — to 8.0 percent from five percent — is seen as crucial to bringing down Japan’s eye-watering national debt, but it has also raised fears that it will derail Tokyo’s bid to kickstart the world’s third-largest economy.
Analysts are predicting the BoJ will launch an expansion of its asset-buying plan, launched last April, later this year to counter any slowdown.
On Monday, fresh data showed that while Japan’s economy expanded by 1.6 percent over last year, it slowed to 0.3 percent in the October-December quarter, presenting a major challenge for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his bid to stoke growth. AFP
