BOJ maintains policy, offers bleaker view on exports
The Bank of Japan kept monetary policy steady on Friday and offered a bleaker view on exports and output, in a nod to recent weak data that cast doubts over its optimistic view that the economy is continuing to recover steadily.
As widely expected, the BOJ voted unanimously to maintain its pledge of increasing base money, or cash and deposits at the central bank, at an annual pace of 60 trillion to 70 trillion yen ($588-686 billion).
“Exports have shown some weakness,” the BOJ said in a statement after the decision. That was a bleaker view than last month, when the BOJ said exports had been moving sideways.
BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda will hold a news conference from 3:30 p.m. (0630 GMT).
The BOJ has stood pat since launching an intense burst of stimulus in April last year, when it pledged to double base money via aggressive asset purchases to achieve its 2 percent inflation target in roughly two years.
(1 US dollar = 102.1100 Japanese yen)
(Reporting by Leika Kihara and Stanley White; Editing by Edmund Klamann)
Source: Reuters
