Tokyo
The Bank of Japan extended an emergency virus-related lending programme but kept its monetary easing policy unchanged Friday, as the country faces a record spike in new Covid-19 cases.
In May, the central bank launched a new lending scheme aiming to channel funds to small and medium-sized businesses suffering from the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.
At a two-day policy meeting, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) extended the end-date for those measures by six months to September 2021.
It made no change to its ultra-loose monetary policy, however—keeping the key interest rate at minus 0.1 percent and the 10-year government bond yield target at 0.0 percent. “Japan’s economy has picked up, but the pace of improvement is expected to be only moderate while vigilance against the novel coronavirus continues,” the central bank said.—APP
