BoJ holds key rate steady between zero and 0.1pc

TOKYO: The Bank of Japan on Wednesday said its policy board had voted unanimously to keep its key rate unchanged between zero and 0.1 percent.

It also offered no new easing measures, after last month expanding a scheme to buy assets and boost liquidity to help safeguard the nation's post-quake recovery from the impact of a strong yen.

"Japan's economic activity has been picking up steadily while the supply-side constraints caused by the earthquake disaster have been mostly resolved," the central bank said in a statement.

It maintained an optimistic view of the recession-hit Japanese economy, saying it expected it "to return to a moderate recovery path from the second half of fiscal 2011".

The BoJ said it would retain its virtually zero interest rate policy until it "judges that price stability is in sight on the basis of the understanding of medium- to long-term price stability".

In what it described as a move to "enhance monetary easing", the BoJ last month said it would expand a 40 trillion yen ($515 billion) scheme to buy securities and supply funds by a further 10 trillion yen.

The bank's asset purchase fund, a key policy tool it uses to buy Japanese government bonds, corporate bonds and exchange traded funds, was expanded to 15 trillion yen from 10 trillion yen.

It also boosted a credit facility by 5 trillion yen to 35 trillion.

On Wednesday it said it "has subsequently been steadily implementing the decision."

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011