Scale of Government Bond Purchase Reduction
To Be Reduced from 400 Billion Yen to 200 Billion Yen Starting April Next Year
The Bank of Japan, Japan's central bank, kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 0.5% on June 17, as widely expected by the market.
According to Kyodo News and Nikkei, the Bank of Japan decided at its monetary policy meeting on this day to maintain the short-term policy rate, which serves as the benchmark rate, at its current level. As a result, the benchmark rate has now been held steady at 0.5% for three consecutive meetings.
This is believed to be due to economic uncertainty stemming from the tariff policies of the Donald Trump administration. Previously, the Bank of Japan ended its negative interest rate policy in March last year for the first time in 17 years, and in July last year raised the benchmark rate from the previous range of 0-0.1% to 0.25%. Then, in January this year, the rate was further increased to 0.5%, where it has remained for five months.
On this day, the Bank of Japan also decided to reduce its quarterly long-term government bond purchases from the current level of 400 billion yen (approximately 3.8 trillion won) since July last year, to 200 billion yen starting from April next year. In July last year, the Bank of Japan was purchasing government bonds worth 5.7 trillion yen (approximately 54.1 trillion won), but has been scaling back these purchases to normalize financial markets. If this reduction continues as planned, by the first quarter of 2027, the monthly government bond purchases will decrease to 2.1 trillion yen (approximately 20 trillion won).
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