The Bank of Japan (BOJ) rejected a call for an immediate start to open-ended asset purchases in BOJ Governor Masaaki Shirakawa’s final meeting before a new leadership takes over at the central bank.
The board voted eight-to-one against the proposal by member Sayuri Shirai, the BOJ said in a statement yesterday after a two-day meeting.
Policymakers left an asset-purchase fund unchanged at ￥76 trillion (US$810 billion) as forecast by all 23 analysts in a Bloomberg News survey.
Japan’s economy has stopped weakening as overseas economies show signs of picking up and exports appear to have stopped falling, the BOJ said.
The Japanese government wants to end deflation to revive the world’s third-biggest economy.
Shirai proposed accelerating the open-ended purchases and combining them with money-market operations.
Currently, the BOJ buys government debt through two channels: its asset-purchase program set up in October 2010 and outright purchase operations, known as rinban.
Shirai’s call indicates she may already be looking ahead to the more aggressive monetary easing proposed by Haruhiko Kuroda, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s pick to be the next central bank governor.
Her backing may help Kuroda to secure majority support for his measures after saying this week that the central bank could buy longer-maturity bonds and bring forward the open-ended purchases, due to start next year.
“Shirai’s proposals show that the BOJ is already moving to Kuroda’s governorship,” said Masamichi Adachi, senior economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co in Tokyo and a former central bank official.
Having her support before he joins “makes it more likely that the BOJ will add much more stimulus,” said Adachi, who sees action as soon as an April 3 and April 4 meeting.
Shirakawa and his two deputy governors exit on March 19 after failing to end 15 years of deflation.
Yesterday, the board also voted down board member Ryuzo Miyao’s latest call for a pledge to keep interest rates at virtually zero until a 2 percent inflation goal is in sight.
“There is a possibility that the BOJ under Kuroda’s leadership will hold an emergency board meeting instead of waiting for the next scheduled meeting, to accelerate the process of monetary easing discussions,” said Takahiro Sekido, Japan strategist in Tokyo at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd.
Adachi said Kuroda will need to act boldly at next meeting and “if he disappoints, that may trigger shocks in the market.”
Some analysts and investors are skeptical about what the central bank will achieve.
“Kuroda will hit the wall of reality,” Atsushi Mizuno, vice chairman at Credit Suisse AG in Tokyo and a member of the BOJ board from 2004 to 2009, said in an interview on Wednesday.
Options for aggressive easing are limited because excessive government-bond purchases could lead to a market bubble, Mizuno said.
The yen strengthened after the BOJ decision on the absence of extra easing.
The currency traded 0.1 percent higher at ￥93.95 per US dollar as of 3:51pm in Tokyo.
The yen has fallen about 12 percent in three months as Abe pledges to end deflation and revive the world’s third-biggest economy.
The BOJ decision came as Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher added to a drumbeat of concern about side-effects from Abe’s campaign.
“He’s aggressive. He has basically politicized the central bank, which worries me personally,” Fisher said in a speech in San Antonio.
“But he wants to see this deflationary” tendency “exorcized” and “he’s working very, very hard to change things, and indeed the stock market has responded,” he added.
The Nikkei 225 Stock Average yesterday broke 12,000 for the first time since September 2008 before closing at 11,968.08, a gain of 0.3 percent for the day.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
RSS