1/22/2021 5:29:39 AM GMT
ASIA
The Bank of Japan kept monetary policy steady on Thursday and revised its economic forecast for the next fiscal year, signaling that it has delivered sufficient stimulus, for now, to cushion the blow from the COVID-19 pandemic, Reuters reported. As widely expected, the central bank kept unchanged its target for short-term interest rates at -0.1% and that for 10-year government bond yields around 0% in a two-day rate review. In a quarterly review of its projections, the BOJ trimmed its economic forecast for the current year ending in March to a 5.6% contraction from the previous forecast for a 5.5% decline. But it revised up its growth projection for the next fiscal year to a 3.9% expansion from a 3.6% increase forecast in October.