Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa pledged on Friday to ensure the country's banking system remains stable, signalling readiness to pump liquidity into the market in case a Greek election in the weekend ignites fresh turmoil.
Shirakawa said central banks were always in close contact with each other and carefully watching markets, which remain jittery on worries over the Greek election and Spain.
"Central banks share a common understanding that it is important to ensure financial system stability," he said at a news conference after the BoJ decided to keep policy settings unchanged.
"If there are worries over funding, central banks can offer liquidity to markets" under existing frameworks such as the Federal Reserve's dollar swap arrangement with the BoJ and other major central banks.
As widely expected, the BoJ held off on increasing the size of its main policy tool, a 40-trillion yen ($505 billion) asset buying programme, saving its firepower in case prospects of a Greek exit from the euro triggers a spike in the safe-haven yen.
Shirakawa said the BoJ will do its utmost to protect Japan's banking system, which remains stable now, suggesting that the central bank is ready to pump huge amount of funds into the system should markets destabilise.
The BoJ revised up its assessment on Japan's economy to say it is starting to pick up, convinced that robust private consumption and rebuilding from last year's earthquake will offset some of the pain from slowing global growth.
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