A steady as she goes announcement with nothing new of significance
- Monetary policy unchanged
- Still pledging to increase the monetary base at annual pace of 60 to 70 Tr yen
- Upgrade of economic assessment
- Made no reference to jump in recent JGB yields
- Capex has stopped weakening on the whole
- Exports have stopped decreasing
- Private consumption has seen increased resilience
- Improved consumer sentiment
- Industrial output stopped declining, signs of pick up becoming more evident
- Some indicators suggest a rsie in inflation expectations
- Housing investment generally picking up
- BOJ continuing to buy JGBs (at annual pace of aboutY50Tr & average maturity to reach 7 years), ETFs (at annual pace of about Y1Tr), J-REITS (at annual pace of aboutY30B)
- CPI likely to fall slightly for time being, but likely to turn gradually positive thereafter
- Financial conditions remain accommodative
- high degree of uncertainty over Japan’s economy remains, including Europe debt problem, growth momentum in USA, emerging market economies