BOJ cuts this year's growth forecast, unveils outline of climate scheme

FILE PHOTO: A man wearing a protective mask walks past the headquarters of the Bank of Japan amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Tokyo, Japan, May 22, 2020.REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

TOKYO (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan cut this fiscal year's growth forecast on Friday but maintained its view the economy was headed for a moderate recovery, signalling that monetary policy will be on a holding pattern for the time being.

At its two-day rate review that ended on Friday, the BOJ also released an outline of its new scheme aimed at boosting funding for activities combating climate change.

It will offer zero-interest funds for a period of a year that can be rolled over any number of times to financial institutions that boost loans or investment for battling climate change, the outline showed.

As widely expected, the central bank left unchanged its yield curve control (YCC) target at -0.1% for short-term interest rates and 0% for 10-year bond yields.

In fresh quarterly projections released on Friday, the BOJ said it expects the economy to expand 3.8% in the current fiscal year ending in March 2022 and increase 2.7% the following year.

In prior forecasts made in April, the BOJ had expected the economy to grow 4.0% this fiscal year and 2.4% the following year.

(Reporting by Leika Kihara, Tetsushi Kajimoto and Daniel Leussink; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim)

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