Bank of Japan Advances Monetary Policy Meeting to Today... "Reviewing Financial Adjustments"

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] The Bank of Japan (BOJ) will hold its monetary policy meeting earlier on the 16th. As countries are rolling out measures to calm financial market turmoil caused by the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), it appears that the BOJ decided to quickly determine whether to cut interest rates and other policies.

According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun and others, the BOJ announced that it will hold the monetary policy meeting, originally scheduled for the 18th to 19th, starting at 12:00 PM on the 16th. The meeting period will also be shortened from two days to one day, and the decision will be announced immediately on the same day.

This is the first time since the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011 that the BOJ has moved up the schedule of its monetary policy meeting. The BOJ explained that the reason for advancing the schedule is "to review necessary financial adjustments considering recent financial and economic trends."

Kyodo News forecasted that the BOJ might decide on additional monetary easing. The Nihon Keizai reported that the BOJ is considering expanding support for corporate financing and purchasing exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to ensure financial market stability.

Prior to the BOJ, the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) lowered its benchmark interest rate by 1 percentage point from 1.00%?1.25% to 0.00%?0.25% on the 15th (local time). The Fed had cut the benchmark rate by 0.5 percentage points on the 3rd of this month, making this a second cut within 12 days. Fed Chair Jerome Powell announced at a press conference that the emergency meeting held to decide the rate cut replaced the regularly scheduled Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, which was planned to be held over two days starting on the 17th.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.