After 17 years: Japan's central bank ends its negative interest rate policy. After a two-day meeting, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) decided to slightly increase the range for short-term interest rates to zero to 0.1 percent.
With its first hike in 17 years, the BoJ is the last of the world's major central banks to abandonnegative interest rate policies. It is the first interest rate increase since February 2007. The negative rate policy, combined with other measures to pump money into the economy and keep borrowing costs low, "have done their job," the bank said.