Former Bank of Japan official: The Bank of Japan may stop reducing its purchases of government bonds in the next fiscal year.

Former Bank of Japan official Makoto Sakurai said that at this month's policy meeting, the Bank of Japan may decide to stop reducing the scale of government bond purchases in the next fiscal year, as the central bank is closely monitoring the worrying rise in Japanese government bond yields. Since last summer, the Bank of Japan has been reducing its government bond purchases by 400 billion yen each quarter, but this process will be paused, Sakurai said in an interview in Tokyo on Monday. "They are very likely to pause," Sakurai said. "They have to consider that if they significantly reduce the purchase of bonds, yields may continue to rise."