Bank of Japan announces unscheduled bond purchases
The Bank of Japan announced two rounds of unscheduled purchases of Japanese government bonds in attempt to contain upward pressure in yields, according to a notice.
The central bank offered to buy unlimited amounts of two- and five-year notes at a fixed rate – and another offer to buy 600 billion yen ($4.5 billion) of one-to-10 year bonds, it said.
This is in addition to its latest announcement to purchase JGBs every business day at a rate of 0.5% starting Dec. 20.
The 10-year JGB yield was last 0.22% lower to stand at 0.465%. Bond yields move inversely to prices.
The central bank last week widened its band of yield curve tolerance for 10-year JGBs to 0.5% of either side of its 0% target from the previous range of 0.25%.
—Lee Ying Shan
South Korea’s retail sales see third month of declines, industrial output recovers
South Korea’s November retail sales fell 1.8% on an annualized basis, declining further after seeing a 0.2% drop in October, government data showed.
Meanwhile, its industrial production inched up 0.4% for the month, slightly recovering after seeing four straight months of declines previously.
South Korea is expected to release its consumer price index on Friday, in which economists polled by Reuters are expecting to see further cooled inflation of 5%.
– Jihye Lee
Oil prices dip as China’s reopening optimism fizzles
Oil prices dipped marginally as China continues to see a rising number of Covid cases as well as a
