Bank of Japan governor Haruhiko Kuroda chose to keep policy on hold, despite analysts’ predictions of further monetary easing given a weakening inflation outlook and the Yen which continues to strengthen, hurting exporters and damaging business confidence. Mr Kuroda’s defense was that he felt it was too early for another round of easing, after having only recently implemented the negative interest rate policy, which is expected to have a larger effect over time. The Yen jumped to Y108 against the Dollar after the announcement, considered by many analysts as not having anything to do with Japan, rather a flight to safety following bad news about the global economy.