Tokyo, Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Japan's central bank sees no need to increase monthly bond purchases from commercial lenders, governor Masaru Hayami said. ``We see no need to increase such purchases now,'' he said at a regular news conference. ``If we focus too much on buying government bonds, it might hurt our financial health.'' Adding more money to the banking system alone won't immediately help the world's second-largest economy, he said. Even so, he said the bank's policy board decided last week it's ready to inject more cash if necessary to stabilize financial markets.
At their meeting last Friday, policymakers kept monthly purchases of government bonds unchanged at 1.2 trillion yen. Increasing bond purchases is among the few tools left to the bank to revive the economy since it cut interest rates almost to zero in March 2001. The central bank also has no plans to increase the amount of stocks it plans to buy from commercial banks, he added. Hayami last year announced plans to buy stocks from banks to reduce their investment losses. //www.quote.bloomberg.com