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BOJ board votes to keep zero interest-rate policy

TOKYO: The Bank of Japan (BOJ) said its Policy Board decided on Monday to maintain its 14-month old policy of driving short-term rates virtually to zero.

In the widely expected decision, the board voted by an undisclosed majority to keep policy on hold, the BOJ said in a statement.

As it has said repeatedly in recent months, the BOJ said the decision sought to ensure the permeation of the effects of monetary easing.

The BOJ has flooded the money market with funds since February 1999 to push short-term rates to zero to combat deflation and help the government's efforts to pull the economy out of its worst postwar recession.

Financial markets are feverishly speculating about when the BOJ can end the zero-rate policy, which it argues is abnormal.-Reuters