The Bank of Japan has dashed investors' hopes for a boost in its stimulus
efforts, sending stocks plummeting.
The central bank on Thursday left
interest rates unchanged and held
off from expanding its big asset purchase program.
Stocks in Tokyo, which had gained 1.4% in morning trade,
plunged into negative territory after the bank's lunchtime announcement and
closed down 3.6%. The yen surged nearly 3% against the dollar.
Many investors and economists had
been expecting some kind of move from the bank to help spur growth and
boost prices in Japan's sputtering economy, which fell back into deflation last month. This week's BoJ board
meeting was the most closely watched
"in recent memory," according to Izumi Devalier, an economist at
HSBC. The bank's governor, Haruhiko Kuroda, has surprised
markets in the past with aggressive measures, most recently
with the controversial decision in late January to take a key interest rate into negative
territory.
But the bank's efforts, along with the ambitious economic reform agenda of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe,
have struggled to make a difference in recent months. The economy
shrank in the last quarter of 2015 and the yen has risen against the
dollar, hurting exporters.
Japanese government data released Thursday
showed a key measure of consumer prices declined 0.3% last month, underscoring
the scale of the challenge the central bank faces in trying to reach its
inflation goal of 2%.
The flow of gloomy data means the BoJ will
have to act in the coming months, according to Marcel Thieliant, senior Japan
economist at Capital Economics.
"We remain convinced that more easing
will be announced before long, perhaps in July," he said in a research
note.
Sumber artikel : http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/28/investing/bank-of-japan-markets-stimulus/index.html?iid=hp-toplead-intl
