Bank of Japan split over easing program: WSJ

Policy makers at the Bank of Japan are divided over whether to make the central bank's bond-buying program more flexible, threatening to add to investor jitters over the path of bond yields, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. While seven members of the bank's nine-person board back easing, they have split over where to go next, the report said, citing people familiar with their thinking. At least three favor sticking with the current program of asset purchases, fearing that tinkering with it could send the yen soaring, the report said. Others, while still in favor of easing, worry the bank is running out of bonds to buy and should adapt a more flexible approach, such as a target for long-term interest rates and a pledge that the bank would buy only the amount of bonds needed to guide rates to that target. The Bank of Japan meets next week and is expected to publish an assessment of its policies.

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