Total Pageviews

Monday, March 14, 2011

Japan Adds $183 Billion to Economy, Doubles Asset Purchases

The Bank of Japan poured a record amount of cash into the financial system and doubled the size of its asset-purchase plan to shield the economy from the effects of the nation’s strongest earthquake on record.

The central bank pumped 15 trillion yen ($183 billion) into money markets today to assure financial stability amid a plunge in stocks and surge in credit risk. Governor Masaaki Shirakawaand his board enlarged a program buying assets from government bonds to exchange-traded funds by 5 trillion yen, about one- tenth the size of the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing.

Policy makers said they were concerned corporate and household sentiment will worsen, with production set to decline in the aftermath of the temblor and an ensuing tsunami. The March 11 catastrophe killed an estimated number of more than 10,000 people, shut down factories, prompted rolling power cuts and sparked the risk of a meltdown at a nuclear power plant.

No comments:

Post a Comment