-
Messi a doubt for Argentina ahead of Copa quarter-final
-
British tennis ace Raducanu votes for 'lie-in' on election day
-
France film director Jacquot charged with raping two actors
-
Israel 'evaluating' new Hamas 'ideas' on halting Gaza war
-
Venezuela, US agree to 'improve relations,' says Caracas
-
Under-fire Kenya govt says to review state salary hikes
-
Thousands told to flee raging California wildfire
-
Osaka focuses on Olympics after Wimbledon KO
-
Tens of thousands flee south Gaza as tensions soar
-
US Fed officials stressed 'patience' on rate cuts: minutes
-
Blond not bombs as Fognini learns to love Wimbledon
-
New lithium plant inaugurated in Argentina
-
Threads hits 175 mn users on first anniversary
-
French court says Netflix shark hit can keep streaming in copycat row
-
Comeback king 'Cav' to carry on doing the thing he loves
-
Alcaraz marches on at Wimbledon as Osaka returns to Centre Court
-
Biden under pressure as Democratic panic rises
-
Belarus frees 'some political prisoners': exiled opposition leader
-
Alcaraz coasts into Wimbledon third round
-
Cavendish makes Tour de France history with 35th stage win
-
Everton sign forward Ndiaye from Marseille
-
Bailed Indian opposition leader to return as chief minister
-
World's oldest artwork discovered in Indonesian cave
-
Toney urges England to kick on after Euros reprieve
-
Murray teams up with Raducanu in Wimbledon mixed doubles
-
Former England rugby coach Jack Rowell dies aged 87
-
Hurricane Beryl bears down on Jamaica
-
US trade deficit expands less than expected in May: govt
-
'The god took away my son': Indians grieve after deadly stampede
-
Moscow hit by heat not seen in over a century
-
US private hiring eases unexpectedly in June: ADP
-
Confident Kroos says Germany-Spain clash 'won't be my last game'
-
Paris bars to open 24h for Olympics opening ceremony
-
Putin, Xi vie for influence at Central Asian summit
-
Germany, Sweden arrest eight over Syria crimes against humanity
-
French giant Mpetshi Perricard joins Wimbledon heavy artillery
-
Two-time Major winner Langer to make 'emotional' European Tour bow
-
French PM urges united front to stop far-right takeover
-
Olympic silver medallist gymnast Poujade dies at 51
-
Bhole Baba: preacher at centre of Indian stampede disaster
-
Microsoft to invest 2.2 bn euros in Spain data centres
-
Showdowns, young guns and own goals as Euro 2024 head into quarter-finals
-
Russia advances in east, kills five in Dnipro strikes
-
France prosecutors request rape charges against film director
-
Schumacher blackmail suspects had 'family photos'
-
EU clears Lufthansa's proposed ITA Airways stake, with conditions
-
Indian World Cup winners head home after hurricane delay
-
120,000 'stolen' babies: Georgia's trafficking scandal
-
Only far right can win absolute majority, French PM warns
-
Turkey ride 'best save' and wave of emotion into Euros quarters
Bank of Japan to scale down huge bond-buying programme
The Bank of Japan on Friday said it would reduce its vast hoard of government bonds as it cautiously steps away from its long-running ultra-loose monetary policy.
The central bank kept interest rates unchanged after a two-day meeting but said it would "reduce its purchase amount of JGBs (Japanese Government Bonds) thereafter to ensure that long-term interest rates would be formed more freely".
"A detailed plan for the reduction of its purchase amount during the next one to two years or so" will be decided at the next monetary policy meeting in July, it said.
While the move had been widely expected, observers said the decision to defer action until next month weighed on the yen, pushing it towards 158 per dollar, from around 157.20 before the announcement.
The BoJ raised rates in March for the first time since 2007 as it seeks to normalise policy without destabilising the world's fourth-largest economy.
Friday's move marks another step away from more than two decades of quantitative easing -- designed to banish stagnation and harmful deflation.
Each month, the BoJ targets monthly government bond purchases of around six trillion yen ($38 billion), to pump liquidity into the system and keep borrowing costs down.
The scale of the BoJ's total assets is enormous -- larger than the country's gross domestic product -- and the bank holds more than half the value of all JGBs in circulation.
Cutting back on bonds has been on the cards for months.
Policymaker opinion cited in the minutes of the BoJ's April meeting said the bank "should indicate its intention to reduce its purchase amount of JGBs" because it "needs to reduce the size of its balance sheet".
Other central banks worldwide aggressively hiked interest rates to tackle soaring inflation in recent years.
But the BoJ has largely stuck to its easy-money policies -- culminating in the Japanese currency hitting a 34-year low in April that led authorities to step into forex markets.
"Reducing bond purchases is an important aspect for the Bank of Japan as it aims to normalise its monetary policy and support the yen," Wael Makarem, financial markets strategists lead at Exness, told AFP before the decision.
"However, given Japan's fragile economic recovery and high public debt, the central bank may have to proceed cautiously... to mitigate the yen's volatility and avoid market disruption or economic instability."
The BoJ wants to see demand-driven inflation of two percent, fuelled by wage increases.
Japanese inflation has been above this target since April 2022, but analysts question to what extent this is caused by temporary factors such as the war in Ukraine.
As well as calling time on its outlier negative-rate policy in March, the bank has stepped away from other unorthodox policies including its yield curve control programme, which allowed bonds to move in a tight band.
"With inflation remaining somewhat sticky at 2.5 percent, slightly above the BoJ's two-percent target, a further rate hike in July or September is likely," said Katsutoshi Inadome, senior strategist at SuMi TRUST.
But "the timetable for that may remain unclear amid yen volatility and an uncertain stance around bond purchases".
M.A.Vaz--PC