TD Securities analysts note that the Bank of Japan (BOJ) left the Policy Balance Rate unchanged and the statement highlighted that the economy is doing reasonably well, and downside risks emanate from abroad.
Key Quotes
“They maintain that they will “not hesitate” to ease further if price momentum is lost (mainly due to developments abroad). But, at the same time, they note that downside risks from overseas is growing so they need to pay more attention to the possibility that price momentum is lost. Thus, they will review this at the next meeting (which comes with updated projections).”
“It really sounds like the BOJ is just buying as much time as they can. Overall, there was really nothing to suggest that they will be rushing to make an imminent policy tweak (to address low yields) but would still view the risk of an October YCC tweak as non-trivial.”