The Bank of Japan has ended its eight-year negative interest rate regime, marking a historic shift away from focusing on reviving growth with massive monetary stimulus packages that lasted for decades.
Although the move will be Japan's first interest rate increase in 17 years, it still keeps interest rates steady around zero, especially since the fragile economic recovery will force the central bank to slow down any further increase in borrowing costs, analysts say. The shift makes Japan the latest central bank to exit negative interest rates and ends an era in which policymakers around the world sought to support growth with cheap money and unconventional monetary instruments.
Source (Al-Arabiya.net website, edited)
