BoJ Minutes: Japan Economy Continues To Recover
(RTTNews) - Members of the Bank of Japan's Monetary Policy Board feel that the country is continuing to recover from the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, minutes from the bank's September 21-22 monetary policy meeting revealed on Wednesday.
Financial conditions in Japan have been generally accommodative, the minutes showed, with exports and industrial production also picking up steam.
However, the members agreed that risks remain for the Japanese economy - not the least of which is persistence of COVID-19.
At the meeting, the BoJ decided to maintain a negative interest rate of -0.1 percent on current accounts that financial institutions maintain at the central bank.
The bank will continue to purchase a necessary amount of Japanese government bonds without setting an upper limit so that 10-year JGB yields will remain at around zero percent. The BoJ also extended the deadline for the application for the special funds provided mainly to small and medium-sized firms in response to Covid-19 by six months.