Following the results of today's meeting, the Bank of Japan left unchanged the main parameters of monetary policy. This meeting was the first for the new head of the central bank Kazuo Ueda. The short-term interest rate on deposits of commercial banks was maintained at minus 0.1% per annum, the target yield of ten-year government bonds was about zero. The regulator also retained the range within which the yield of ten-year government securities can fluctuate – plus/minus 0.5%. It is worth noting that the phrase about plans to keep the rate at the current level or lower has disappeared from the text of the Central Bank's statement. The Bank of Japan has expressed this intention since October 2019. At the same time, the central bank stated that it is ready to maintain a stimulating policy until inflation stabilizes at the 2% target level. In addition, the regulator announced its intention to conduct an audit of monetary policy, the results of which will be published in 12-18 months. This is necessary because «achieving price stability has been a problem for 25 years,» and during this time the Central Bank has tried many measures to solve the problem. The Bank of Japan also presented an updated forecast for inflation: the indicator excluding fresh food in the current fiscal year, which ends in March 2024, will be 1.8% in annual terms (the previous forecast was 1.6%). In March of this year, the growth rate of consumer prices accelerated to 3.1%. The forecast of GDP growth of the country of the Rising Sun for the current year has been lowered: from 1.7% to 1.4%. In the next two years, the country's economy will increase by 1.2% and 1%.
