Corrections in interest rates and asset values may have the most potential for disruption when they impair the financial health of borrowers and lenders and thereby cause them to pull back even further than might be warranted by the change in rates or prices. In that regard, we have some reason to be optimistic that the players are well positioned to absorb these adjustments.
Since the establishment of the Program, the Bank has expanded its size successively, including in February and April of this year, so that the outstanding amount of asset purchases would reach about 65 trillion yen by around the end of 2012 and about 70 trillion yen by around the end of June 2013, thereby contributing to the pursuit of powerful monetary easing.