BOJ keeps ultralow rates, douses speculation of policy normalization

The Bank of Japan on Tuesday left its monetary easing framework unchanged and vowed to keep ultralow rates to ensure wage growth and stable inflation, capping off 2023 with a dovish tilt as its chief Kazuo Ueda trod carefully not to fuel market talk of policy normalization.The BOJ governor said the likelihood of attaining the central bank's 2 percent inflation target stably is "gradually increasing," but he needs more time and economic data to become convinced about the outlook.At the end of a two-day meeting, the Policy Board decided that short-term interest rates will remain at minus 0.1 …READ FULL ARTICLE