Japan’s central bank holds rates, raises purchase of government bonds

August 11th, 2009 Japan central bank likely to hold interest ratesTOKYO — Japan's Cabinet Office kept its cautious view on the economy unchanged Tuesday, noting signs the downturn was bottoming out while warning about growing joblessness. The Bank of Japan is also expected to keep a similar stance when it ends its two-day policy board meeting later in the day, and keep its near-zero interest rates unchanged.

July 15th, 2009 Japan's central bank keeps rates steadyTOKYO — Japan's central bank has kept its benchmark interest rate steady amid signs that the economy has ended its slide. The Bank of Japan's eight-member policy board voted unanimously to leave its overnight call rate target unchanged at 0.1 percent, as widely expected by the market.

July 15th, 2009 Japan keeps rates steady as economy stabilizesTOKYO — Japan's central bank kept its key interest rate steady Wednesday amid signs the world's second-largest economy has ended its slide. The Bank of Japan's eight-member policy board voted unanimously to leave its overnight call rate target unchanged at 0.1 percent, as widely expected by the market.

May 11th, 2009 Mitsubishi swapping $600 mln Morgan Stanley sharesTOKYO — Japan's biggest bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., said Monday it will swap $600 million of its preferred shares in Morgan Stanley for common stock to keep its voting rights stake of the U.S. bank above 20 percent.

May 9th, 2009 Bank of England increases asset purchase programLONDON — The Bank of England has kept official interest rates on hold at a record low of 0.5 percent — but has increased its program to buy back assets to increase the domestic money supply. At the end of its monthly rate-setting meeting on Thursday, the bank said it is increasing the size of its so-called quantitative easing program by 50 billion pounds ($75.4 billion) to 125 billion pounds.

April 30th, 2009 Japan's central bank keeps interest rate on holdTOKYO — Japan's central bank kept its benchmark interest rate steady amid signs that the country's economic picture may be brightening. The Bank of Japan's eight-member policy board voted unanimously Thursday to leave the overnight call rate target unchanged at 0.1 percent, as widely expected.

April 21st, 2009 MUMBAI - India's Central bank cut key rates Tuesday by 25 basis points in a move to infuse more liquidity into the system and stimulate lending growth. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cut the repo rate by 25 basis points from the current 5 percent to 4.75 percent, while the reverse repo rate has been brought down to 3.25 percent from 3.5 percent earlier.

March 31st, 2009 CHENNAI - The city-based bulk drug manufacturer Orchid Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals has purchased $12.1 million worth of bonds from the market and is in the process of extinguishing them to save on interest costs. This is the second such purchase in recent times by the company, which March 26 announced it had bought $25.7 million worth of bonds.

March 30th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The central bank has some leeway in funding the government due to a buffer it has built up over the past several years, but this could get exhausted rather quickly, global investment bank Goldman Sachs said in a report released Monday. 'Our calculations show that the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) can fund about Rs.1.5 trillion ($30 billion/Rs.1.5 lakh crore) of the government's borrowing needs without creating a sizeable monetary overhang and stoking inflation,' it said.

March 27th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) feels it would be difficult to lower lending rates any further if the government did not slash interest rates on existing deposits. 'The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is not reducing interest on savings bank deposits.

March 7th, 2009 MUMBAI - Two days after the country's central bank lowered key rates, private lender ICICI Bank Friday cut interest rates in new home loans by 25-50 basis points. For home loans less than Rs.2 million, the lending rate would come down to 9.75 percent from 10 percent, a bank spokesperson said.

February 2nd, 2009 MANILA - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) Tuesday said it had raised $1 billion for the three-year global benchmark bond issue to return to the US dollar bond market. The bonds, with a coupon rate of 2.125 percent per annum payable semiannually and a maturity date of March 15, 2012, were priced at 99.779 percent to yield 92.25 basis points over the 1.125 percent US Treasury note due January 2012, ADB said in a press release.

January 26th, 2009 MUMBAI - India's central bank decided to maintain status quo on key rates and lowered the country's growth target for this fiscal to seven percent as it presented the third quarter review of its monetary policy here Tuesday. The benchmark bank rate, the repurchase rate, the reverse repurchase rate, the cash reserve ratio (CRR) and the statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) were all kept unchanged by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor D.

January 1st, 2009 MUMBAI - In a bid to lower the cost of borrowings for commercial banks, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Friday cut the both the repurchase and reverse-repurchase rates by 100 basis points each, while reducing the cash reserve ratio (CRR) by 0.5 percent points. 'The reduction in the CRR will inject additional liquidity of around Rs.20,000 crore (Rs.200 billion/$4 billion),' the central bank said in a statement, while announcing a further monetary stimulus to prop the economy.

December 29th, 2008 KOLKATA - India's apex housing finance institution, the National Housing Bank (NHB), expects housing finance companies to reduce lending rates, a top company official said here Tuesday. 'As we have reduced rates, we expect housing finance companies to reduce rates and pass on the benefits to consumers,' NHB chairman and managing director S.