Before the Bank of Japan’s monetary policy board met on Friday, economists wondered quite how aggressive the central bank’s swashbuckling governor, Haruhiko Kuroda, would be. Would he push Japan further into negative interest rates Would he announce a big increase in the BOJ’s bond purchase programme Would he find some radical new measure, sending shockwaves through the currency and equity markets
The answer, it turned out, was none of the above. Kuroda held back from announcing the headline-grabbing stimulus measures economists have come to expect from him.
It is hard to blame him. The BOJ’s monetary policy board met just two days after...