This monetary easing measure has both a quantitative aspect – such as increasing the monetary base and the amount outstanding of the Bank’s JGB holdings – and a qualitative aspect – such as extending the average remaining maturity of the Bank’s JGB purchases.
Hence the name “quantitative and qualitative monetary easing.” Over the past three months, the Bank has pursued the QQE as initially planned (Chart 2). The monetary base has expanded from 146 trillion yen at end-March to 173 trillion yen at end-June, at a somewhat front-loaded pace toward 200 trillion yen by end-2013.