Let me emphasize that the amount of purchases on a gross basis may increase or decrease depending on the amount of redemption; thus, it is by no means a tapering of the pace of JGB purchases nor a reduction of quantitative easing as long as the annual pace of purchases on a net basis remains about 50 trillion yen.
This doesn’t just generate the wrong incentives, as I mentioned earlier. Above all, it costs a lot of money. Look at Ireland, for example: rescuing its banks raised the country’s 2010 budget deficit to more than 30% of GDP.