BOJ held record 52% of gov’t bonds in Dec. as it defended yield cap

The Bank of Japan owned a record 52.02 percent of outstanding Japanese government bonds at the end of December, as the central bank was forced to ramp up purchases to defend its cap on long-term yields, data showed Friday.

The BOJ’s holdings came to 546.93 trillion yen ($4.1 trillion) while the total amount of outstanding government debt was at 1,051 trillion yen. The ownership level rose from that of three months earlier when it crossed the 50 percent mark for the first time, according to the BOJ data.

While the world’s major central banks went ahead with aggressive interest rate hikes to fig...