Negative interest rates not meant to help yen exchange rate: Kuroda

Tokyo

BANK of Japan (BOJ) governor Haruhiko Kuroda was forced onto the defensive on Thursday when he faced a grilling in Parliament over the BOJ's decision to introduce negative interest rates, as market movements wiped out most of the gains seen so far from the controversial move.

He denied that the central bank was engaging in a "currency war" by dropping rates below zero. Mr Kuroda also defended the move as necessary, even if it should result in negative rates spreading beyond the relatively narrow confines of commercial bank deposits at the BOJ.

The embattled governor spoke as currency markets pushed the yen back up to around 118 per dollar - the level where it was when the…