First, the purchase of JGBs will absorb those securities circulating in the market. Thus it will continue to put downward pressure on the term premium of JGB yields. Second, as expectations for economic recovery and inflation rise, the expected short-term interest rates (i.e., the future path of short-term interest rates) will gradually increase.
• Blockchains and the underlying distributed ledger technology seem promising, and central banks are open to them in principle. There are several potential use cases in settlement and payment systems, for instance, which are worth exploring further. • But handling and safely storing vast amounts of data does not necessarily require distributed ledgers.