“What’s important is to show people that the BOJ is strongly committed to achieving 2 percent inflation and that it will do whatever it takes to achieve it,” BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda told a news conference.
The BOJ’s aggressive policy was a response to the increasingly weak global economic outlook and falling oil prices, which have renewed deflationary risks.
“But there’s a risk recent further falls in oil prices, uncertainty over emerging economies, including China, and global market instability could hurt business confidence and delay the eradication of people’s deflationary mindset,” Haruhiko added. “The BOJ decided to adopt negative interest rates … to forestall such risks from materializing.”
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Max Chen contributed to this article.