Headlines announced on March 16 that Japan had held its negative interest rate steady at negative 0.1 percent. But markets have missed the nuanced changes made by the Bank of Japan’s governor Kuroda on Monday, April 11, as he liberalized Japan’s negative interest-rate policy by changing the rules that govern what share of current-account deposits are at a negative rate and what are at zero.The adjustment triggered a turn in the yen and Japanese stocks.
As an April 12 Bloomberg article explained:
Bank stocks rallied after the announcement, which was released Monday. The central bank increased the ratio applied to the portion of deposits exempt from negative rates to 2.5 percent from the initial zero. It takes effect April 16.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore responded with its own adjusted policy statement on April 14.
We like Japan. Hedged and directly. Cumberland international ETF accounts have about a 25% Japan weight versus 17% in benchmark.