'BOJ Cuts Economic View for Second Month

Japan’s central bank lowered its assessment for the nation’s economy for a second straight month while refraining from boosting monetary stimulus, citing easy domestic financial conditions. Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa and his policy board kept the central bank’s asset-buying fund at 20 trillion yen ($257 billion), and its credit-lending program at 35 trillion yen, it said in a statement in Tokyo today. The benchmark interest rate was held at a range of zero to 0.1 percent. The government sold the Japanese currency in the market at least three times this year. The BOJ has supported efforts by expanding its asset-purchases, its main policy tool. The Finance Ministry said yesterday it is preparing to bolster its intervention war chest to a record high, an indication it remains vigilant about volatility in the yen.