The result is to keep longer-term interest rates steady at low levels, underpinning corporate profits, and improving the return on investment. Within a financing environment where they can raise funds at low rates even while the economy continues to recover, firms will pursue new business opportunities more vigorously and adopt a more proactive business stance, thereby raising expectations of economic growth.
At the Monetary Policy Meeting (MPM) on May 19 and 20, 2005, the Bank decided to maintain the current guideline for money market operations, which specifies a target for the outstanding balance of current accounts at the Bank of around 30 to 35 trillion yen, and the Bank also decided to add the following sentence to the proviso in the guideline: "When it is judged that liquidity demand is exceptionally weak considering such factors as responses of financial institutions to the Bank's fundssupplying operations, there may be cases where the balance of current accounts falls short of the target."