Negative deposit rates not necessary, says Kuroda

Tokyo

BANK of Japan governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Monday that he saw no need to implement negative deposit rates in Japan as borrowing costs were already very low due to the central bank's aggressive asset purchases.

Such a step was unnecessary in Japan as the BOJ's massive asset-buying programme, dubbed "quantitative and qualitative easing" (QQE), was pushing down bond yields across the curve, Mr Kuroda said. "Our QQE has had an intended impact on the economy and financial markets. Banks have been increasing their loans to the real economy. . . Rebalancing has also been taking place," Mr Kuroda told a seminar in Tokyo. "So we don't think we should implement negative deposit interest rates," he said.