The Bank of Japan (BoJ) decided on Tuesday to keep reference interest rates unchanged, but slightly expanded the range of ten-year bond yields, reducing to some extent its easing strategy.

At the end of its two-day monetary policy meeting today, the Japanese central bank kept short-term interest rates at -0.1% and pledged to continue its flexible purchase programs so that 10-year bonds remain around 0%, but modified the margin for the yield curve.

The permissible range of long-term interest rate fluctuations, which was currently at +/-0.25%, will be extended to +/-0.5%, which in practice may have an effect on interest rates on loans to individuals and the private sector.