By Tetsushi Kajimoto

TOKYO, Reuters – Bank of Japan Governor Haruhikokuroda said Thursday that his bank is not in a hurry to end its huge monetary stimulus program soon. This was after U.S. Federal Reserve overnight decided to reduce massive asset purchases.

Kuroda spoke to journalists after meeting Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. He said that the situation at his institution regarding the pandemic coronavirus is different from Western central banks.

According to the expectation of many, Wednesday’s announcement by Fed stated that they would reduce their $120 billion monthly purchases of Treasuries, mortgage-backed Securities at $15 billion each month. The plan is to eventually end these purchases entirely in mid-2022.

We are continuing to ease monetary policy in order to reach a target of 2% inflation (price stability). Kuroda stated that, in addition to this, a program is being developed to address the problem of the coronavirus epidemic spreading.

Kuroda met with Kishida for the first time since he took office. Kuroda stated that the two discussed the economy and the financial markets in Japan. This was after Kuroda’s Tuesday meeting with Japan’s economy and finance ministers. In which they all reiterated the BOJ’s determination to reach its inflation target of 2%,

Kuroda stated that new coronavirus infection rates are in decline in Japan but that the central bank will continue to support financial institutions until March next year.

“We will maintain the yield curve control (YCC), even after coronavirus infected are controlled. There are many differences between Japan and the West.

The YCC policy sets the BOJ’s short-term interest rate at -0.1%, while the 10-year yield is around 0%.

To achieve its goal of 2% inflation, the central banks purchases risky assets and government bonds.