History Made As Japan Hikes Rates, Drops YCC, Ends ETF-Buying

Remember this day. March 19, 2024, will be enshrined in the annals of monetary policy history. This was the day the Bank of Japan exited the world's last surviving negative rates regime, ended a long-running experiment with yield-curve control and concluded a risk-asset buying program, all in one fell swoop. The long-awaited "virtuous cycle between wages and prices" is upon us, the bank said, in the statement, before expressing confidence that the 2% inflation target will be "achieved in a sus