TOKYO (Reuters) – The Bank of Japan (BoJ) left its monetary policy unchanged on Friday, leaving it free to reassess its options later, as its governor, Haruhiko Kuroda, is due to leave office in April.
The Japanese central bank decided unanimously to maintain the short-term rate target at -0.1% and to contain the yield on ten-year government bonds around zero.
“The BoJ expects short-term and long-term interest rates to remain at current or lower levels,” the institution said in a statement.
The BoJ also maintained its position that the Japanese economy will recover. The institution, however, was less optimistic than in January on production and exports, believing that they were “deviating”, while industrial production and external demand have recently slowed.
The BoJ also preferred not to change its yield curve control (YCC) policy before the entry into office of Kazuo Ueda, who will succeed Haruhiko Kuroda as head of the institution next month.
Haruhiko Kuroda will hold a press conference at 3:30 p.m. (0630 GMT) to present the BoJ’s decisions.
(Report Leika Kihara and Tetsushi Kajimoto; Camille Raynaud)
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