The Bank of Japan decided Monday to effectively revive the "zero-interest-rate" policy, only seven months after abandoning it, as it tries anew to get a hold on the nation's faltering economy.
The BOJ said it will raise the target balance for commercial bank reserves at the central bank to 5 trillion yen from 4 trillion yen through a policy of quantitative easing, which is expected to bring the overnight call rate down toward zero by increasing the amount of money in the market.
The overnight call rate is the interest rate charged by banks when making short-term loans to one other.