BOJ prods banks to hike businesses lending

Launches new, low-interest lending program.

The Bank of Japan aims to boost bank lending to businesses by launching a lending program for financial institutions. BOJ will extend the loans this month to 70 financial institutions that have increased their lending to companies between January and March.

The loans will have an annual interest rate of 0.1% and can be extended every three months, up to five times. The total volume of the loans will exceed US$31 billion.

Central bank officials say the new program is meant to boost the effectiveness of the current monetary easing policy.