Japan’s monetary base hits record high

Tokyo, Jan 5 (IANS) Japan's monetary base reached a record high by the end of 2016, as the Bank of Japan (BOJ) continued its efforts to combat deflation by pumping the markets with liquidity, it said on Thursday.

According to the latest BOJ data, the monetary base at the end of 2016 stood at 437.43 trillion yen ($3 trillion), up for the 10th consecutive year to a record high, Xinhua news agency reported.

Balance of financial institutions' current account deposits at the BOJ, the biggest component of the monetary base, stood at 330.23 trillion yen, up by 30.5 per cent on year.

Cash in circulation, another component of the monetary base, stood at 107.2 trillion yen, up by 4 per cent compared to the end of 2015.

The Japanese central bank has been bolstering liquidity as part of its ongoing efforts to achieve its inflation target of 2 per cent, though falling consumer prices keep hampering the achievement of the target.

Japan's core consumer prices dropped 0.4 per cent year-on-year in November 2016, marking the ninth successive month of decline, as a result of falling prices of energy.