Japan’s central bank refrains from 3rd month of monetary easing

The Bank of Japan has decided it would not implement additional monetary easing in November after two consecutive months of easing measures. The bank voted unanimously to hold its key interest rate at zero to 0.1%, as was widely expected, it was reported here Tuesday. As part of October’s easing measures, the bank said it would expand an asset-purchase programme to about 91 Trillion yen (1.14 Trillion dollars) from 80 Trillion yen, as it came under increasing pressure from the government to do more to combat deflation. After the report, Economy Minister Seiji Maehara said Japan’s economy had possibly entered recession. The nation’s economy contracted an annualized 3.5% in the July-to-September quarter, the government reported last week.