Japan's central bank took emergency action today to help support the economy following the U.S. Federal Reserve's decision to cut its benchmark interest rate to nearly zero percent. After the Fed's move Sunday, Bank of Japan governor Haruhiko Kuroda called the meeting for today instead of Wednesday and Thursday as originally planned. The unprecedented levels of "qualitative and quantitative easing,'' helped Japan end a long spell of deflation but did not boost growth as much as expected. With an aging and shrinking population, Japan faces an uphill battle in getting companies to invest in domestic manufacturing or boost wages. But the jobless rate has remained low because the number of workers is also on the decline.

Source: The Standard March 16, 2020 07:52 UTC