The Bank of Japan (BOJ) decided on Friday to leave interest rates unchanged at -0.1% and maintain its target for 10 -year government bond yields at around 0% at its June session policy meeting.
In addition, the central bank also extended its lending program especially for companies affected by the six-month pandemic outbreak until March 2022 and stressed that it will continue to maintain a loose monetary policy.
At the same time, policymakers say it will launch a new scheme to provide funds to financial instruments that invest or provide loans related to climate change issues.
Japan's central bank says it expects to launch the scheme by the end of this year and will issue preliminary guidelines at its next policy -setting meeting in July.
In terms of economic growth, the BOJ is of the view that the Japanese economy has shown improvement, even as the country faces pressure from coronavirus restrictions re -implemented this year.
The Japanese economy shrank 3.9% annually in the first quarter and was seen making only a modest recovery, while inflation rose 0.1% from the previous year, marking the first year -on -year increase since March 2020 but still far from the BOJ’s 2% target.
Japanese yen trading was seen as unimpressed following the decision, and continued to trade steady against the US dollar after gaining support from declining 10 -year US bond yields.
