TOKYO -- While the Bank of Japan has given no indication of plans to scale back its monetary easing policy, it has begun spending less on monthly purchases of long-term government bonds, creating some confusion among investors.
The BOJ has spent an average of 7.3 trillion yen ($70.2 billion) to buy Japanese government bonds each month since embarking on its aggressive policy of "quantitative and qualitative" monetary easing last April. But in January, it purchased only about 6.6 trillion yen in JGBs.
