2020.01.2102:45:00UTC+00BoJ Retains Monetary Policy Rate

The Bank of Japan maintained its monetary policy on Tuesday but upgraded its growth outlook.

The Policy Board of the BoJ voted 7-2 to retain the interest rate at -0.1 percent on current accounts that financial institutions maintain at the central bank.

The bank maintained it yield target for 10-year Japanese government bonds at around zero percent.

Further, the bank will purchase JGBs in a flexible manner so that their outstanding amount will increase at an annual pace of about JPY 80 trillion.

The BoJ raised its growth forecast for the fiscal 2020 citing the effects of the government's economic measures.

The economy is expected to grow 0.9 percent in the fiscal 2020, up from the prior estimate of 0.7 percent. Likewise, the projection for fiscal 2021 was lifted to 1.1 percent from 1 percent.

The BoJ estimate the fiscal 2019 growth at 0.8 percent compared to the previous forecast of 0.6 percent.

The BoJ said inflation projections are more or less unchanged. Inflation is forecast to rise to 1 percent in fiscal 2020 from 0.6 percent in the fiscal 2019. The projection for fiscal 2019 was lowered from 0.7 percent and that for 2020 from 1.1 percent.

For fiscal 2021, inflation is seen at 1.4 percent versus previous estimate of 1.5 percent.