BOJ's JGB Buying Hits Record 23 T. Yen in Jan.

Tokyo, Feb. 1 (Jiji Press)--Purchases of Japanese government bonds by the Bank of Japan hit a monthly record of 23,690.2 billion yen in January, the central bank announced on Wednesday.

Through the massive JGB buying, the BOJ was aiming to curb rises in long-term interest rates as investors were selling JGBs in the anticipation that the central bank could further revise its monetary easing policy after modifying the policy in December.

The purchase amount in January was far larger than the previous record of 16,203.8 billion yen, set in June last year, when market speculation grew that the BOJ could be forced to revise its policy in the face of rising interest rates overseas.

At its policy meeting in December, the BOJ raised its upper limit on the benchmark 10-year JGB yield from 0.25 pct to 0.5 pct while increasing its monthly JGB buying.

Ahead of the following BOJ policy meeting, held in January, however, the key yield rose as high as 0.545 pct in the bond market, and the central bank conducted extraordinary JGB purchases.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]