Bank of Japan pledges unlimited easing, commits to price goal
the policy announcements, fell immediately after the decision, though later crept up higher.
Several analysts pointed out, however, the BOJ could have done even more and there will be expectations that it will follow through with further steps mooted by politicians, economists and some central bank policymakers.
MORE ACTION EXPECTED
One such step would be to scrap the 0.1 percent floor for short-term interest rates, while another would be for the central bank to buy longer-duration bonds.
"There's still a lot of work to do, and still a lot of room for improvement," said Tadashi Matsukawa, head of fixed income at Pinebridge Investments in Tokyo.
Abe, who led his Liberal Democratic Party to a landslide victory in a Dec. 16 parliamentary election, made promises of aggressive budget and monetary stimulus a centrepiece of his campaign.
His pledges to boost public spending and repeated calls for more BOJ action helped reverse a long-term rise in the yen and set off a stock market rally led by exporters and construction firms.
But many economists have warned the stimulus could give the sluggish economy only a temporary jolt if the government fails to follow through with politically more difficult economic reforms such as deregulating its protected farming sector.
They also warn that the push to reflate the economy could backfire if Abe's government fails to convince markets that it has a credible plan to get Japan's ballooning debt back under control.
Seeking to address such concerns, the government said in the joint statement it would draw up a growth strategy and
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