PUBLISHED ONJanuary 28, 2016 8:30 PM
The Bank of Japan adopted negative interest rates for the first time at the end of its two-day policy review on Friday, buckling under pressure to ease concerns about the health of the world's third-largest economy.
In a move that was signaled by the Nikkei business daily minutes ahead of the decision, the BOJ said it will apply a rate of negative 0.1 per cent to excess reserves that financial institutions place at the bank and introduce a three-tier system on rates .
The news saw the benchmark Nikkei shoot up 3 per cent, the yen slide 2 per cent against the greenback and US stock futures rally 1 per cent.
No changes were made to the bank's government bond purchases or exchange-traded funds (ETFs).