The Bank of Japan upgraded its assessment of the world’s second-largest economy and held its key interest rate unchanged at a near-zero 0.1 percent yesterday as it tries to nurture a recovery.
The unanimous and widely anticipated decision on the overnight call rate came at the end of the central bank’s two-day policy board meeting.
“Japan’s economic conditions are showing signs of recovery,” the bank said in a more optimistic tone than its previous statement, which had said the economy had “stopped worsening.”
It was the first upgrade since July.
The bank cited a rebound in exports and public spending as underpinning a recovery, while pointing to weak consumer spending and surging unemployment as risks.
Japan eked out its first quarter of growth in the April-to-June period after a yearlong contraction, but the jobless rate has reached a record high 5.7 percent and salaries are falling. Prices have also been waning, setting off worries about deflation, which could further sap energy from the economy.
Atsushi Matsumoto, economist at Mizuho Research Institute in Tokyo, warned much of the recovery is coming from government incentives such as tax breaks for ecological cars and refunds for green gadgets.
“The pace of the recovery is still slow,” he said. “It’s hard to be overly optimistic about the outlook.”
The central bank said stable prices were likely to return in the long run, although the outlook remained uncertain amid worries about overseas economies and global financial markets.
Bank Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said Japan did not face an immediate risk of falling into a deflationary spiral.
Shirakawa reiterated that despite some risks the economy is headed to a recovery by the latter half of fiscal 2009, which ends March 31 next year.
The Bank of Japan will decide on the fate of extraordinary steps — such as buying up corporate debt from banks, which were implemented after last year’s financial crisis — by Dec. 31, the date when such measures expire, he said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique