BOJ held record 53% of Japan gov't bonds at March end

The Bank of Japan held 53.34 percent of outstanding Japanese government bonds at the end of March, a record high, after it stepped up buying to keep borrowing costs extremely low, data showed Tuesday.The BOJ's bond holdings, excluding those with short-term maturities, came to 576.06 trillion yen ($4 trillion), while total government debt issued was at 1,079.96 trillion yen, according to the central bank.The BOJ has held more than half of the government's debt for the third straight quarter.Under its yield curve control program, the BOJ sets short-term interest rates at minus 0.1 percent and…READ FULL ARTICLE