6  BIS Review 100/2010  Aggressive monetary easing Second, to address the critical situation following the failure of Lehman Brothers and under the recognition that Japan’s economy faces the critical challenge of overcoming deflation and returning to a sustainable growth path with price stability, the Bank has been continuing with aggressive monetary easing.
Specifically, the target level for the overnight call rate, the policy rate, was reduced to 0.1 percent in December 2008 and has remained unchanged since then. The effective zero interest rate of 0.1 percent is the lowest policy rate among the central banks around the globe.