In light of heightened uncertainties surrounding overseas economies, such as those stemming from the United Kingdom’s vote to leave the EU, the Bank at the July 2016 MPM decided to enhance monetary easing in order to prevent these uncertainties from leading to a deterioration in business confidence as well as consumer sentiment, and to ensure smooth funding in foreign currencies by Japanese firms and financial institutions, thereby supporting their proactive economic activities.
Specifically, measures taken by the Bank are threefold (Chart 6 [1]). The first is an increase in Bank’s purchases of exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Specifically, the amount of purchases will be almost doubled from an annual pace of about 3.3 trillion yen to an annual pace of about 6 trillion yen.