Announcement from the Bank of Japan monetary policy meeting
- Keeps monetary policy steady, pledges to increase monetary base at annual pace of 80 trln yen
- BOJ's policy decision was made by 8-1 vote
- BOJ board member Kiuchi votes against policy decision
- Kiuchi proposed tapering annual jgb purchases to 45 trln yen, which was turned down by majority vote
- Kiuchi proposed keeping asset buying, zero rates for as long as needed under flexible price target, which was turned down by 8-1
- BOJ says will cut number of policy-setting meetings from next year
- Number of policy-setting meetings each year will be cut to 8 times from current 14
- BOJ says Japan's economy continues to recover moderately, keeps assessment unchanged
- On inflation ... prices "appear to be rising on the whole from a somewhat longer-term perspective"
- Said CPI is likely to be around zero because of lower energy costs
Text of Statement on Monetary Policy (Announced at 12:04 p.m.) [PDF 122KB] is here
- BOJ says to issue outlook report on economy, prices 4 times annually from next year, vs 2 times now
Will release document containing summary of opinions presented at each policy meeting about a week after each meeting
Will continue to issue Minutes of its policy meetings as it does now
Says will discontinue release of its monthly economic report, which will be integrated into quarterly outlook report
Says decision to change number of policy meetings made by unanimous vote
Full text of New Framework for Monetary Policy Meetings [PDF 95KB] is here
Quick Headlines via Reuters
Next up from the Bank of Japan, Governor Kuroda press conference at 0630GMT
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There you have it ... as expected, all steady on the policy front
They're cutting the number of policy meetings ... I like that ... it seems we get more BOJ meetings than Chinese PMIs .... and we get a lot of those :-D
