The Bank of Japan left its dovish policy unchanged Friday, refusing to cave in to mounting pressure to act over the fast-falling yen and brushing off fresh speculation that it might follow other central banks in moves to fight inflation.
The BOJ, which ended its two-day policy meeting the same day, decided to stay the course on its aggressive easing program, which includes negative interest rates, so-called yield-curve control and asset purchases.
While many economists had predicted that the BOJ was unlikely to shift its policy this time, the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision Wednesday to introduce a 0.75 percentage point rate hike — its largest since 1994 — as part of increased efforts to curb inflation had fueled speculation among some market observers that the BOJ might change course.