Financial markets deem BOJ's negative rates a failure

Tokyo

THE Bank of Japan's (BOJ) negative interest rates came into effect on Tuesday in a radical plan already deemed a failure by financial markets, highlighting Tokyo's lack of options to spur growth as global markets sputter.

The central bank, which announced the shock decision on Jan 29, will charge banks 0.1 per cent for parking additional reserves with the BOJ to encourage banks to lend and prompt businesses and savers to spend and invest.

While the announcement briefly drove down the yen and buoyed Japanese share prices, markets quickly went into reverse. "It's getting clearer that Abenomics is a paper tiger," said Seiya Nakajima, chief economist at Office Niwa, a consultancy, referring to Prime M…