The Bank of Japan boosted its asset buying program by $130 billion on Tuesday and in the face of political pressure set an inflation goal of 1 percent, signaling a more aggressive monetary policy to pull an ailing economy out of deflation.
Bond futures jumped and the yen fell as the decision pointed to much faster asset buying in the central bank's most determined effort to date to reinflate an economy that shrank last year and which has struggled with deflation for most of the last two decades.
The central bank kept its policy rate in a range of zero to 0.1 percent and pledged not just to maintain zero rates but to continue buying assets until 1 percent inflation is foreseen. (Reuters)
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