Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said Wednesday that pushing rates further into negative territory was off the table, reflecting both his upbeat inflation outlook and his concerns over the contentious policy measure. The BOJ introduced the measure in January 2016, imposing a 0.1% charge on certain yen deposits. Source: MarketWatch
Germany’s Finance Minister, Olaf Scholz had ruled out any possibility of injecting new monetary stimulus as debts to stimulate slowing German economy and blamed external factors like trade disputes and risk of United Kingdom leaving European Union behind this year’s anemic growth. Source: Financial World
Japan and China have signed an agreement for a program that will make it easier for investors to buy exchange-traded funds listed in each other’s markets.
Under the program, a Japanese or Chinese firm would create an ETF that mainly invests in the other country’s listed ETFs, the Japan Exchange Group Inc. and Shanghai Stock Exchange said in a joint statement Monday. Source: Japan Times
Oil prices surged on Monday, hitting new 2019 highs, after the Trump administration announced that all oil buyers will have to end imports from Iran in just over a week or be subject to U.S. sanctions. Source: CNBC
