Record Foreign Buying of Japan Bonds Spells Headache for BOJ

  • Overseas demand threatens to undermine BOJ yield curve control
  • Risk-off environment is spurring JGB purchases: Oanda’s Innes
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Global funds snapped up a record amount of Japanese bonds last week in a trend that threatens to complicate the central bank’s yield-curve control policy.

Overseas investors bought a net 1.72 trillion yen ($15.2 billion) of Japanese debt in the week ended Dec. 7, the most in Ministry of Finance data starting in January 2005 and a third straight week of purchases. Benchmark 10-year bond yields fell to a four-month low of 0.035 percent on Monday as a rout in global equities spurred demand for safer assets.