Bank of Japan holds firm

The minutes from the Bank of Japan meeting in November state that rates were held firm because of unstable conditions in the economy. Target rates have stayed fixed at .5 percent. They have maintained the 50 bp target since February contrary to most other Western central banks which have generally been lowering rates in the face of unstable market conditions.

The real growth rate in Japan has been below 2% for the most recent numbers. Sentiment as measured by the Tanken report has fallen across the board, so there is little expectation that Japan will be a growth engine in 2008.