BoJ announces $62 bn of additional monetary easing

The Bank of Japan today announced further monetary easing measures in its latest bid to halt the damaging spiral of deflation that has plagued the economy for years.

The central bank said it would increase its asset purchase programme by 5 trillion yen ($62 billion) to about 70 trillion yen. It also said its policy board had voted unanimously to keep its key interest rate unchanged at between zero and 0.1%.

The BoJ also said it will expand its purchases of government bonds to those with longer maturities.

"The bank decided to increase the outstanding amount of the (asset purchase) programme to about 70 trillion yen by around end-June 2013," a statement said.