TOKYO, April 7 (Xinhua) — The Bank of Japan (BOJ) stated Friday it held greater than 581 trillion yen (4.4 trillion U.S. {dollars}) in authorities bonds as of March, the most important on file for the top of a fiscal yr.
The quantity was up 10.6 % from a yr earlier after the BOJ ramped up shopping for to carry down the yield on the benchmark 10-year problem, whereas the central financial institution’s complete belongings, together with exchange-traded funds, fell 0.2 % to 734.85 trillion yen.
The BOJ’s large holding of bonds is a part of its large-scale financial easing program below outgoing Governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s decade on the helm of the central financial institution, regardless of the coverage being closely criticized for requiring bulk purchases of presidency bonds.
The central financial institution has been preserving short- and long-term rates of interest depressed by means of large purchases of presidency bonds. In current months, the central financial institution has needed to ramp up shopping for to counter market strain, permitting for extra flexibility in long-term yield strikes.
Under its yield curve management program, the BOJ units short-term rates of interest at minus 0.1 % whereas guiding 10-year Japanese authorities bond yields round zero %.
Last December, the BOJ introduced a shift in its ultra-loose financial coverage, elevating the yield on the 10-year Japanese authorities bond as excessive as 0.5 % from a earlier cap of 0.25 %, which despatched yields surging and compelled it to ramp up bond shopping for to defend the restrict.