At its two-day Monetary Policy Meeting (MPM), the central bank voted to maintain the uncollateralised overnight call rate at around 1.25 per cent until its next meeting, according to its monetary policy statement.
The Bank of Japan kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 1.25 per cent on October 30, in an 8–1 vote, with one board member favouring a hike to 1.5 per cent.
The central bank also unanimously approved accelerating annual ETF sales from 330 billion yen to 860 billion yen, citing smooth disposals since January 2026 and expanding stock market trading volumes.
The BoJ also unanimously approved an increase in the pace of ETF sales from approximately 330 billion yen to 860 billion yen annually, on a book-value basis.
Under the revised plan, the central bank will sell ETF holdings equivalent to approximately 0.1 per cent of stock market trading value, doubling the proportion from around 0.05 per cent under its previous approach.
At its September 2025 meeting, the BoJ had decided to begin selling ETFs at a pace broadly equivalent to its earlier sales of stocks purchased from financial institutions. Those stock sales had proceeded smoothly through July 2025, providing a basis for the central bank’s approach to reducing its ETF holdings.
The bank began selling ETFs in January 2026 at an annual pace of approximately 330 billion yen and reported that the process had continued smoothly without causing major market disruption.
With stock market trading value expanding, the central bank decided to increase the scale of disposals while continuing to avoid significant market impact.
The decision to accelerate ETF sales received unanimous support from the Policy Board, while the interest rate decision was approved by eight of its nine members.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KD)
