Japanese bankers applaud BoJ for not altering interest rates

Japan’s main bank lobby has hinted that the country’s central bank was right to keep monetary stimulus unchanged yesterday, saying that sending negative interest rates even lower would hurt the industry.

“The impact on banks would be more severe if negative rates are expanded,” Japanese Bankers Association chairman Takeshi Kunibe said at a briefing in Tokyo hours after the Bank of Japan decided not to change fiscal policy.

This meant the BoJ held its key interest rate at minus 0.1% and kept the annual target for expanding the monetary base at 80 trillion yen (€685bn).