【双语新闻】BoJ says decade of deflation has ended

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　　2006年3月10日 星期五

　　日本央行：10年通缩结束BoJ says decade of deflation has ended

　　日本央行（BoJ）昨天终止了长达5年的极度宽松货币政策，并采用利率管理体系，从而正式宣布长达10年的通缩结束。

　　Japan‘s decade of deflation was officially declared over yesterday when its central bank ended five years of ultra-loose monetary policy and moved to a regime of managing interest rates.

　　日本央行的这一决定比许多人预期的要早一个月，这一决定标志着央行的一个明确宣示，表明日本这个全球第二大经济体在经历了泡沫破裂后15年的低迷时期后，已回归常态。央行的这一行动也宣示了它的独立地位，而此前央行面临政界人士的巨大压力，他们要求央行不要过早采取升息行动，以免扼杀日本多年来最有希望的一次经济复苏。

　　The Bank of Japan decision， which came a month earlier than many had expected， marks a decisive statement by the bank that the world‘s second-biggest economy has returned to normality after 15 years in post-bubble doldrums. The move was also an assertion of the central bank’s independence following intense pressure from politicians not to tighten prematurely and risk choking off Japan‘s most promising recovery in years.

　　但日本央行试图避免使日本乃至全球金融市场不安。央行表示，新的目标，即无担保隔夜拆款利率，将在数月内保持在“百分之零的实际水平上”。

　　But the bank sought to avoid unsettling Japanese and global financial markets. It said the new target， the uncollateralised overnight call rate， would be kept at “effectively zero per cent” for several months.

　　日本央行5年前开始实行极度宽松的货币政策，以避免金融崩溃的风险。日本的各家银行在堆积如山的不良贷款重压下喘不过气来。前白宫经济学家格伦。哈巴德（Glenn Hubbard）2002年估计，日本的不良贷款危机，是美国储蓄和贷款机构危机相对规模的20倍。

　　The Bank of Japan‘s ultra-loose policy was brought in five years ago to avoid the risk of financial meltdown. Banks were suffocating under a mountain of non-performing loans， which Glenn Hubbard， former White House economist， estimated in 2002 at 20 times the relative size of the US savings and loan crisis.

　　这场金融危机使传统货币政策失效，并迫使政府发行巨额债务，其中大量被日本央行购买，以确保经济不陷入大萧条。

　　The financial crisis left conventional monetary policy impotent and obliged the government to issue huge amounts of debt， much of it bought by the BoJ， to ensure the economy did not sink into depression.

　　通货紧缩使负债问题更加糟糕，因为相对于过去10年多数时间里日益下降的收入和名义国内生产总值，以前债务的金额因通货紧缩而上升了。

　　Deflation made the debt problem worse by increasing the size of past loans in comparison with falling earnings and a gross domestic product that has fallen， in nominal terms， for most of the past decade.

　　最终，中国和美国的需求引发了日本的经济复苏。20世纪90年代这10年，日本经济增长乏力，但与那时不一样的是，这次复苏没有被政策错误或外部冲击所扼杀。

　　Japan‘s economic revival was finally sparked by demand from China and the US. Unlike in the 1990s， a decade dominated by anaemic growth， this revival has not been snuffed out by policy errors or external shocks.

　　日本央行的政策转变意味着，全球三大央行现正联手紧缩。但高盛（Goldman Sachs）表示，日本在保持零利率的同时让通胀趋势得以巩固，实际上等于放松了货币政策。

　　The BoJ shift means the big three central banks are now tightening in unison， although Goldman Sachs said keeping Japanese rates at zero while inflation gathered momentum actually constituted a loosening.