THE riposte to doubts about Abenomics, the three-part plan of Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister, to shake the country from its economic torpor, is more of the same, and a lot more. On October 31st the Bank of Japan (BoJ) stunned the financial markets by unexpectedly expanding its programme of quantitative easing. The bank’s existing measures, a “different dimension” of easing from past efforts, were already daringly bold. Now it will swell Japan’s monetary base at an even faster pace, by around ¥80 trillion ($712 billion) each year, up from ¥60 trillion-70 trillion currently. To do so, it will hoover up still larger quantities of Japanese government bonds (JGBs). This additional step, said Haruhiko Kuroda, the governor of the BoJ, “shows our unwavering determination to end deflation”.
