February 25, 1999
Bank of Japan
(For immediate release)

The Bank today held a Monetary Policy Meeting, a regular meeting of the Policy Board on monetary policy.

By majority vote, the Policy Board decided to leave monetary policy unchanged.

The guideline for money market operations in the inter-meeting period ahead is as follows:

The Bank of Japan will provide more ample funds and encourage the uncollateralized overnight call rate to move as low as possible.

To avoid excessive volatility in the short-term financial markets, the Bank of Japan will, by paying due consideration to maintaining market function, initially^(note) aim to guide the above call rate to move around 0.15%, and subsequently induce further decline in view of the market developments.

Note: "Initially" means the time of the previous Monetary Policy Meeting, February 12, 1999.

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(Reference)

Meeting hours : 9:02 a.m. to 3:28 p.m.

Members present :

Masaru Hayami ( Chairman, Governor )
Sakuya Fujiwara ( Deputy Governor )
(Mr. Fujiwara was not present between 9:26 a.m. and 11:46 a.m. due to his attendance at Diet meetings.)
Yutaka Yamaguchi ( Deputy Governor )
Yasuo Gotoh
Susumu Taketomi
Toshio Miki
Nobuyuki Nakahara
Eiko Shinotsuka
Kazuo Ueda

( Others present )
From Ministry of Finance:Sadakazu Tanigaki, State Secretary for Finance ( 9:02 a.m. to 11:46 a.m.)

From Economic Planning Agency:Hiroshi Imai, Parliamentary Vice Minister ( 9:20 a.m. to 10:36 a.m.)Takao Komine, Director-General of the Price Bureau ( from 10:36 a.m.)

Release of minutes :
2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 30, 1999