By Bill Witherell
The Bank of Japan at its October 30-31 Monetary Policy Committee meeting kept its policy unchanged while indicating it was willing to lower interest rates further into negative territory from their current low levels if needed to maintain progress towards the 2% inflation objective. The decision not to cut rates at this time was based on the Bank's belief that the Japanese economy is strong enough to get through the current period of weak global demand. The economy has indeed encountered a "speed bump" that can be attributed to the rise in