JAPAN TO PROMOTE INTEREST RATE LIBERALISATION

  The Bank of Japan decided at a policy
  board meeting to promote further interest rate liberalisation
  by lowering the minimum denomination of regulation-free large
  deposits and by raising the interest rate ceiling on money
  market certificates (MMCs), a central bank official said.
      The new guideline will go into effect on April 6, the bank
  said.
      Under the guideline, the minimum denomination of
  regulation-free large deposits will be lowered to 100 mln yen
  from 300 mln.
      The interest rate ceiling of MMCs with maturities of
  between one year and two years will be set at 0.5 percentage
  point below the prevailing certificate of deposit rate, the
  bank said.
      But the ceiling on MMCs with maturities of one year or less
  will remain the same, or 0.75 percentage point below the CD
  rates.
      The minimum denomination of MMCs will be lowered to 10 mln
  yen from 30 mln.
      The bank also said time deposit rates will be lowered by
  0.37 point, effective March 16, in line with the half-point cut
  in the official discount rate on February 23.
      New interest rates on two-year and one-year deposits at
  banks, for example, will be 3.64 pct and 3.39 pct per annum,
  respectively.
      Demand deposit rates, however, will remain the same.
  

