The Bank of Japan said Tuesday it will maintain its zero interest rate policy while enhancing its loan scheme for prospective growth industries to ¥5.5 trillion, up from ¥3.5 trillion.
The BOJ also said it will extend the deadline for applications for the program, referred to as the Growth-Supporting Funding Facility, by two years until March 2014 in an effort to boost the sluggish economy and bring deflation to a halt.
The economy "confronts the long-term structural challenge of declining-trend growth rates amid rapid population aging," the central bank said in a statement after a two-day meeting of its Policy Board.