On September 19, after the end of the two-day monetary policy meeting, the central bank of Japan announced thatining the current interest rate level unchanged, it will choose the opportunity to sell its financial assets in the future, reduce the scale of easing and promote the normalization of monetary policy.

The announcement shows that the central bank of Japan continues to keep its policy interest rate at around 0.5 percent.In addition, the central bank will choose to sell its traded Open Index Funds (ETFs) and Real Estate Investment Trust Funds (REITs) assets on the market in the future.

In a press conference, Japanese central bank chairman Planta Yama said that the central bank currently plans to sell annual ETFs worth approximately 33 billion yen and REITs worth approximately 5 billion yen.

According to the website of Nihon Keizai Shimbun, the current market value of ETFs with a book value of 330 billion yen is about 620 billion yen. As of the end of March this year, the book value of ETFs held by the Bank of Japan totaled 37 trillion yen, and the market price was about 70 trillion yen.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, in response to the severe impact of the epidemic on the Japanese economy and market, the Bank of Japan continued to increase monetary policy easing by expanding its asset purchase program and other means. In March last year, the Bank of Japan announced the end of its negative interest rate policy, started the first interest rate hike, and stopped buying ETFs and REITs. Since then, it has been looking for opportunities to sell its assets.