Bank of Japan expands stimulus again as pandemic pain deepens

Reuters reports that the Bank of Japan expanded monetary stimulus on Monday and pledged to buy unlimited amount of bonds to keep borrowing costs low as the government tries to spend its way out of the deepening economic pain from the coronavirus pandemic.

The move puts the BOJ in line with other major central banks that have unleashed unprecedented amounts of monetary support as the health crisis stokes fears of a deep global recession.

The central bank also sharply cut its economic forecast and projected inflation would fall well short of its 2% target for three more years, suggesting its near-term focus will be to battle the crisis.

To ease corporate funding strains, the BOJ said, it will boost by three-fold the maximum amount of corporate bonds and commercial debt it buys to 20 trillion yen ($186 billion).

The central bank also clarified its commitment to buy unlimited amounts of government bonds by scrapping loose guidance to buy them at an annual pace of 80 trillion yen.

At the meeting on Monday, cut short by a day as a precaution against the spread of the pandemic, the BOJ kept its interest rate targets unchanged, as had been widely expected.

The central bank, however, offered to pay a 0.1% interest to financial institutions that tap its new loan programme to combat the pandemic - a move aimed at encouraging commercial banks to boost lending to cash-strapped firms.