- The Bank of Japan has surprised markets by expanding lending facilities that are designed to spur corporate investment by offering low-interest loans to commercial banks in the hope that they will lend the money to businesses.
- At a policy meeting, the BOJ doubled one program to ¥7T ($68B) and said individual banks could borrow twice as much under another facility.
- The BOJ also maintained its program of increasing the monetary base by ¥60-70T a year.
- The boosting of the lending facilities comes after data yesterday showed that Q4 GDP grew a less-than-expected 0.3%. Notwithstanding, the BOJ maintained its view that Japan is recovering moderately.
- The move helped weaken the yen and the Nikkei to surge 3.3%. The USD-JPY is +0.6% at ¥102.57. (PR)
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