The nation's monetary base grew 45.8 percent in October from a year earlier to ¥186.87 trillion, hitting a record high for the eighth straight month as the Bank of Japan kept pumping money into the financial system to beat deflation under its ultraloose monetary policy, the central bank said Tuesday.

The average daily balance of liquidity provided by the central bank — consisting of cash in circulation and the balance of current account deposits held by commercial financial institutions at the bank — increased for the 18th consecutive month.

The country's monetary base at the end of October stood at ¥189.81 trillion, the highest level ever, the BOJ said.

The balance of current account deposits — the sum of funds the institutions can use freely — more than doubled to ¥98.76 trillion, with the BOJ injecting more liquidity into the banking system by buying a large number of financial assets from banks.

In pursuit of "quantitative and qualitative monetary easing" introduced on April 4 to stamp out deflation, the BOJ said it has set the monetary base as the main target for its monetary policy, instead of the overnight call rate.

The BOJ decided in April to double the monetary base within two years, and for that purpose increase it at an annual pace of about ¥60 trillion to ¥70 trillion, with the aim of conquering nearly two decades of deflation.

The monetary base is projected to rise to ¥200 trillion at the end of this year and to ¥270 trillion at the end of next year if the central bank conducts its monetary operations as planned.