BOJ's paper loss on bond holdings spikes tenfold

Hit to Japan central bank's assets grows to $71bn as yield cap is raised

TOKYO, Mar 18 (Nikkei) - The Bank of Japan's paper loss on Japanese government bond holdings grew more than 10 times at the end of last year from three months earlier as rises in long-term rates undercut the value of the assets.

The market value of the central bank's JGB holdings stood at 554.6 trillion yen ($4.2 trillion) as of the end of December, according to preliminary flow of fund data released Friday. Given that the announced book value of the assets was 564.1 trillion yen, the unrealized loss came to 9.5 trillion yen ($71.4 billion), up from 874 billion yen at the end of September, based on a Nikkei calculation. ...continue reading