- BOJ’s massive government bond holdings indicate there is little room for further stimulus.
- The central bank may have a hard time weakening Yen in future.
The Bank of Japan (BOJ) now holds a staggering 43.5% of all outstanding Japanese government debt, Jeroen Blokland, Portfolio Manager for the Robeco Multi-Asset funds, Robeco ONE and Robeco Pension Return Portfolio, tweeted on Thursday.
The central bank unleashed a massive quantitative easing program in April 2013. Under the QE plan, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) vowed to buy ¥7 trillion of government bonds each month using electronically created money.
The QE program is in its sixth year. Even so, the BOJ remains miles away from its 2% inflation target.
If anything, the QE program seems to have distorted markets. Also, with BOJ owning more than 43% of government debt, there is limited scope for further monetary stimulus.
Put simply, the BOJ is going to have a tough time battling bullish pressures around the JPY during the next round of risk aversion.