BOJ keeps ultra-low rates, dovish policy guidance

TOKYO (Reuters) – The Bank of Japan maintained its massive stimulus on Friday and its guidance to keep borrowing costs at “present or lower” levels, signaling its resolve to focus on supporting the economy’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The central bank also said it would offer to buy unlimited amounts of 10-year Japanese government bonds (JGB) at 0.25% every business day, repeating the guidance on market operations it made in April.

As widely expected, the central bank kept unchanged its short-term interest rate target at -0.1% and a pledge to guide the 10-year government bond yield around 0%. The decision was made by a 8-1 vote.

(Reporting by Leika Kihara, Tetsushi Kajimoto, Daniel Leussink and Kantaro Komiya; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim)