Japan’s central bank significantly reduced its purchase of local equity in 2021 according to end-of-year sales figures.
Data compiled by Bloomberg showed that Bank of Japan (BoJ) bought 873.4 billion yen ($7.6 billion) in 2021.
This amounted to the smallest purchase of ETFs since prime minister Shinzo Abe came to power for the second time in 2012.
It is also a much reduced figure from the $60 billion purchased in 2020.
The BoJ had announced in March that it would abandon its previous policy of buying a minimum of $55 billion’s worth of ETFs every year.
The central bank still owns 60% of the ETFs listed in Japan, as of the end of November, which amounts to $535 billion in assets, according to data from ETFGI.
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