BoJ deputy governor signals need to keep interest rates on hold as market volatility persists

Meeting with local leaders in Hakodate

Bank of Japan deputy governor Shinichi Uchida argued that the central bank needs to keep its monetary easing in line with the current interest rate.

In a meeting held today (7 August) with local leaders in Hakodate, Uchida described the policy interest rate of 0.25% as "significantly low" and argued to continue monetary easing in accordance with the current rate due to "developments in financial and capital markets at home and abroad being extremely volatile". His statement came two days after the Japanese stock market suffered its largest one-day decline on Monday (5 August), amid investor fears that the US was heading for a recession. Japan's Nikkei 225 index nosedived at the time by almost 13%, having dropped 5.9% before the we...