Nov 27 (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan on Wednesday posted its first profit in five years at the fiscal half-year mark as a weak yen pushed up the value of its foreign currency-denominated assets.
The central bank booked a net profit of 602.1 billion yen ($5.9 billion) in the first half of the fiscal year that started in April, reversing a 183.3 billion yen loss in the same period a year earlier.
Earnings on foreign assets stood at 303.6 billion yen at the end of September, versus a 307.6 billion yen loss in the same period a year ago, the BOJ said in a statement.
The yen traded at 98.30 per dollar at the end of September, down 21 percent from the same period a year ago, according to central bank data, as bold quantitative easing from the BOJ helped weaken the currency.
The BOJ also earned 16.1 billion yen on its equity holdings in the fiscal first half, reversing a 152.0 billion yen loss from last year, due to a rally in Tokyo shares on expectations that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's reflationary policies would help the economy grow.
The central bank's assets rose 208.8 trillion yen in the fiscal first half after it decided in April to greatly expand its purchases of government debt to meet its 2 percent inflation target in two years.
Government debt holdings in the fiscal first half jumped 63 percent from a year ago to 167.6 trillion yen, BOJ data showed.
The BOJ's capital-to-asset ratio, a measure of financial health, rose to 7.48 percent in April-September from 7.45 percent the same period a year ago.
reuters.com
The central bank booked a net profit of 602.1 billion yen ($5.9 billion) in the first half of the fiscal year that started in April, reversing a 183.3 billion yen loss in the same period a year earlier.
Earnings on foreign assets stood at 303.6 billion yen at the end of September, versus a 307.6 billion yen loss in the same period a year ago, the BOJ said in a statement.
The yen traded at 98.30 per dollar at the end of September, down 21 percent from the same period a year ago, according to central bank data, as bold quantitative easing from the BOJ helped weaken the currency.
The BOJ also earned 16.1 billion yen on its equity holdings in the fiscal first half, reversing a 152.0 billion yen loss from last year, due to a rally in Tokyo shares on expectations that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's reflationary policies would help the economy grow.
The central bank's assets rose 208.8 trillion yen in the fiscal first half after it decided in April to greatly expand its purchases of government debt to meet its 2 percent inflation target in two years.
Government debt holdings in the fiscal first half jumped 63 percent from a year ago to 167.6 trillion yen, BOJ data showed.
The BOJ's capital-to-asset ratio, a measure of financial health, rose to 7.48 percent in April-September from 7.45 percent the same period a year ago.
reuters.com
No comments:
Post a Comment