Bloomberg (May 16)
“Never before has the Bank of Japan done so much to achieve so little. Even after arranging a record stimulus program and reducing a key interest rate to less than zero, the central bank has failed to boost inflation to its goal of 2 percent…. A central bank using up its policy tools doesn’t bode well for a nation with the world’s largest debt burden.”
Tags: BOJ, Central bank, Debt burden, Goal, Inflation, Interest rate, Policy tools, Stimulus
Reuters (May 15)
“Fears policy makers are out of ammunition has led a growing number of overseas investors to speculate the BOJ might resort to helicopter money,” but this remains unlikely. “Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda likes to keep markets guessing by saying one thing and doing another, but… officials and close associates say he almost certainly means it” when he rules out using helicopter money to reinvigorate the economy.
Tags: Ammunition, BOJ, Economy, Fears, Guessing, Helicopter money, Kuroda, Markets, Overseas investors, Policy makers
Bloomberg (April 26)
“With the BoJ dabbling in negative interest rates, JGB yields have gotten compressed to a maximum of 0.4 percent, and that’s at a maturity of 40 years. It’s as though Japanese financial institutions are sitting on a tightly wound spring. Even a small increase in the yield — a little uncoiling — could send the whole edifice flying, a risk Janus Capital’s Bill Gross cites as an example of ‘global monetary lunacy.’”
Tags: Bill Gross, BOJ, Financial institutions, Japan, JGB, Lunacy, Maturity, Monetary, Negative interest rates, Yields
Institutional Investor (April 23)
“Rate announcements by the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan will loom large this coming week as investors consider the alternate reality of negative interest rates. Meanwhile, key economic indicators for onetime BRIC stars Russia and Brazil will arrive as each suffers from the weight of low oil prices and Brazil deals with domestic political intrigue surrounding the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff.”
Tags: Announcements, BOJ, Brazil, BRICS, Economic indicators, Fed, Impeachment, Negative interest, Oil, Rates, Rousseff, Russia
Bloomberg (April 18)
“The death toll from earthquakes that struck southern Japan rose to 42 and the economic impact began to reverberate Monday as companies surveyed damage and the potential effects on production from supply-chain disruptions.” Amidst the uncertainty, investors “are speculating that Japan’s government and central bank will need to consider more stimulus for an economy that is already struggling.”
Tags: BOJ, Damage, Deaths, Earthquakes, Economic impact, Government, Investors, Japan, Production, Stimulus, Supply-chain disruptions, Uncertainty
Bloomberg (April 11)
“For global equity investors and Shinzo Abe, it’s splitsville.” For 13 straight weeks during 2016, “foreign traders have been pulling out of Tokyo’s stock market.” They’ve dumped “$46 billion of shares as economic reports deteriorated, stimulus from the Bank of Japan backfired and the yen’s surge pressured exporters. The benchmark Topix index is down 18 percent in 2016, the world’s steepest declines behind Italy.”
Tags: Abe, BOJ, Equity investors, Exporters, Italy, Shares, Stock market, Tokyo, Topix, Traders, Yen
Bloomberg (March 25)
There are lots of questions for the Bank of Japan about its negative rate strategy, which “has caused bond yields to fall below zero, money market funds to stop accepting money, and lawmakers to summon Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda to parliament a record number of times to explain it.”
Tags: BOJ, Bond yields, Kuroda, Lawmakers, MMF, Negative rates, Parliament, Strategy
Wall Street Journal (February 15)
“Three years since Mr. Abe took power pledging to end two decades of falling prices and wages, followed by the launch of a massive monetary easing program by the Bank of Japan, headline inflation is still languishing around zero, real wages are falling and the economy has yet to achieve consistent growth.”
Bloomberg (February 12)
The Bank of Japan’s “decision to adopt negative interest rates has failed to rein in the currency’s advance.” In part, this is because money managers are advising wealthy families to favor the yen amid the turmoil in global financial markets. As a result, the yen is outperforming “all 31 other major currencies this year as Japan’s current-account surplus makes it attractive for investors seeking a haven.
Tags: Attractive, BOJ, Currency, Current-account, Haven, Interest rates, Investors, Japan, Money managers, Outperforming, Turmoil, Wealthy, Yen
Financial Times (February 10)
“The Bank of Japan should not fear cutting interest rates even further.” Japan’s central bank “should not be constrained by fear that others will follow it into negative territory.”
Tags: BOJ, Central bank, Constraints, Fear, Interest rates, Negative
