つうか、日銀がなに考えてるかホントわからん
Bank of Japan takes fresh stimulus steps
By Michiyo Nakamoto in Tokyo
Published: August 30 2010 06:29 | Last updated: August 30 2010 11:32
The Bank of Japan moved to halt the rise of the yen and support the country’s faltering economy by expanding a special bank lending programme by half to Y30,000bn (£227.3bn $353.8bn).
The central bank’s decision on Monday highlights the growing sense of concern about the weakness of the Japanese economy and the negative impact of the yen’s sharp appreciation against the dollar.
Concern is also rising about the outlook for major developed economies, prompting Ben Bernanke, US Federal Reserve chairman, to send a message on Friday that if necessary, the Fed would support the sputtering economy with further measures.
The Japanese government had been expected to announce fiscal stimulus measures on Tuesday, but Naoto Kan, prime minister, signalled after meeting with Masaaki Shirakawa, the central bank governor, that the package would not be completed until September 10.
Mr Kan said the Y920bn ($10.8bn) package would be focused on employment .
Mr Shirakawa returned early from Jackson Hole for the unscheduled bank board meeting. Mr Kan last week urged the governor to act swiftly to tackle the yen’s rise.
The new Y10,000bn added to the lending programme will provide funds for six months. The existing Y20,000bn programme has a three-month duration.
Japan’s economy in the second quarter grew an annualised 0.4 per cent, according to preliminary government data, and was overtaken by China as the world’s second largest.
Markets responded enthusiastically early Monday to news that the BoJ board would convene, but investor enthusiasm flagged after the central bank stopped short of taking aggressive action to halt the yen’s climb. The Nikkei closed 1.8 per cent higher, having jumped as much as 3 per cent earlier. The yen clawed back losses and ended little changed against the US dollar.
The Nikkei stock index last week fell below the psychologically important 9,000 level as the yen rose to a 15-year high against the US dollar.
The central bank said on Monday that Japan’s economy “is likely to be on a recovery trend.”
However, it added that “uncertainty about the future, especially for the US economy, has heightened more than before, and the foreign exchange and stock markets have recently been unstable.”
“In these circumstances, the bank judged it necessary to pay more attention to the downside risks to the outlook for Japan’s economic activity and prices,” the bank said.
However, there was some scepticism about the effectiveness of the BoJ’s move, with the yen and government bonds bouncing back from initial losses after the central bank’s announcement and the Nikkei trimming gains.
What has been driving yen appreciation since May are external factors including sharp falls in overseas yields, stocks and heightened risk aversion in the market and not monetary or fiscal policy, wrote Tohru Sasaki, chief foreign exchange strategist at JP Morgan in Tokyo, in a note, suggesting that new central bank action will have limited impact on the yen.
.Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.
