Japan’s central bank keeps monetary easing measures

Exports, imports decline in Dec

TOKYO, Dec 19, (Agencies): Japan’s central bank decided on Thursday to maintain its monetary easing measures and left its assessment of the country’s economy unchanged.

At the end of a two-day policy meeting, Bank of Japan’s (BoJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda and his eight board colleagues voted by 7 to 2 to keep short-term rates at minus 0.1 percent and long-term rates around zero percent, according to a statement released by the BoJ.

The central bank will also continue to buy the government bonds to increase its holdings at an annual pace of about JPY 80 trillion ($730 billion) and exchange-traded funds at JPY 6 trillion ($55 billion) respectively, it said.

The BoJ will examine the risks considered most relevant to the conduct of monetary policy and make policy adjustments as appropriate with a view to maintaining the momentum toward achieving its 2 percent inflation target, it said. “In particular, in a situation where downside risks to economic activity and prices, mainly regarding developments in overseas economies, are significant, the central bank will not hesitate to take additional easing measures if there is a greater possibility that the momentum toward achieving the price stability target will be lost,” the statement said.

The central bank pointed out risks to the outlook, including developments in emerging and commodity-exporting economies such as China, and the UK’s exit from the European Union (EU) and their effects. The decision came after the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank kept their interest rates steady last week.

Also:

TOKYO: Japan’s exports and imports fell in November from the previous year, hit by a global economic slowdown and trade disputes, according to Finance Ministry data released Wednesday.

Japan suffered a trade deficit of 82 billion yen ($752 million) for the month, the data show. Exports in November fell 8% compared to the same month a year ago, while imports fell 16%.

Exports to the US fell 13%, while those to South Korea dropped 17%.

Japan and South Korea have disagreed over compensation for Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945. Both sides have retaliated by making trade approval procedures more difficult.

Japanese exports to China have been declining because of an economic slowdown in China, a major driver of regional growth, partly because of China’s trade dispute with the US.