BOJ releases summary of market views on bond taper plan

By Leika Kihara

TOKYO (Reuters) – The Bank of Japan on Tuesday released a summary of opinions it collected in a survey of bond market participants on how the central bank should taper its huge bond purchases.

Some bond market participants called for reducing the BOJ’s monthly government bond purchases to around 2 trillion to 3 trillion yen ($12.44-$18.65 billion), while others called on the bank to keep buying around 4 trillion yen, the BOJ said in the summary.

The summary included opinions that called for an even faster pace of tapering, with one saying the BOJ should aim to trim buying to around 1-2 trillion yen per month.

The findings from the survey were released as part of a briefing material the BOJ prepared for a two-day meeting with bond market participants that kicked off on Tuesday.

The outcome of the meeting will be taken into account when the BOJ lays out its bond-tapering plan later this month.

The BOJ currently pledges to buy roughly 6 trillion yen ($37 billion) in government bonds per month. It will announce a detailed plan on how to taper the bond purchases at its next policy meeting on July 30-31.

($1 = 160.8300 yen)

(Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Louise Heavens)