Not surprisingly, the Bank of Japan left its policy rate at 0.10% by unanimous vote.The statement accompanying the release made it a clear point that “Japan’s economic conditions have stopped worsening.” They cited improvements in exports and production after Machine Orders rose 9.7% with such orders from abroad surging 43.8%.Overall exports had risen 6.3% as well. Despite the initially postive tone in the statement, the bank noted that there would likely be an acceleration in the rate at which prices decline.They did, however, state that a significant reason for the year-over-year decline in prices was due to the historically high cost of oil last summer compared to the price of the commodity at the present time. The Bank of Japan offered no new insights as to any possibly redirection in the manner that they conduct their monetary policy.
