Kuroda defends Bank of Japan's controversial move

Tokyo

BANK of Japan (BOJ) governor Haruhiko Kuroda on Thursday defended before parliament the controversial decision taken recently by a narrow majority of the BOJ's Policy Board to introduce negative interest rates in Japan, arguing that the benefits of the move will spread steadily through the Japanese economy.

The country's overnight call rate, the benchmark lending rate between banks, fell to negative levels earlier this week after the BOJ began implementing negative interest rates on banks' excess reserves, marking the first time in 10 years that "call" money has been traded at negative rates since 2006.