Japan's central bank keeps monetary easing policy

Japan's central bank decided to keep its monetary policy unchanged and said the country will almost reach the inflation goal by March 2016, in on Thursday. At a one-day policy meeting, Bank of Japan's (BOJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda and his eight board colleagues voted unanimously to maintain its ultra-easy policy introduced in April, according to a statement released by the BOJ after the meeting. "The BOJ will conduct money market operations so that the monetary base will increase at an annual pace of about JPY 60-70 trillion (USD 618-722 billion)," the central bank said. In April, the BOJ decided to double the monetary and the purchases of government bonds in two years to overcome the world's third-largest economy's deflation that has lasted for nearly 15 years and to achieve the 2 percent inflation target in fiscal 2015. The measures also included more purchases of risky financial assets, including exchange-traded funds and real estate investment trusts. "Japan's economy is judged as likely to achieve around 2 percent inflation and return to a sustainable growth path toward the latter half of the projection period," the BOJ said in its semiannual outlook report for the next three years, released Thursday, affirming that Japan's economy has been recovering moderately. The central bank said the country's inflation rate is expected to reach 1.9 percent in fiscal 2015.