(Adds background)
TOKYO, April 7 (Reuters) – The Bank of Japan’s (BOJ)
holdings of Japanese government bonds (JGBs) hit a record at the
end of March, the central bank’s data showed on Friday.
The BOJ’s holdings of JGBs stood at 582 trillion yen ($4.42
trillion) as of March 31, up 10.6% from a year earlier, and a
record for the end of fiscal year since the central bank started
publishing data in 2013.
The BOJ, which remains an outlier in a global wave of
monetary tightening by central banks, was forced into massive
bond buying to defend its policy cap on the 10-year Japanese
government bond yield
The massive bond buying distorted the JGB market by
artificially suppressing part of the yield curve and causing
illiquidity as the BOJ’s ownership of benchmark bonds ballooned.
The central bank purchased a record 136 trillion yen in the
year through March, almost double the amount in the previous
year, separate data showed earlier this week.
($1 = 131.6800 yen)
(Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by Muralikumar
Anantharaman)
((junko.fujita@thomsonreuters.com;))
Keywords: JAPAN BONDS/BOJ (UPDATE 1)
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