clipped from www.bloomberg.com

Shirakawa Downplays Speculation for Joint Rate Cut

The best way for central banks to counter the global financial crisis is to provide liquidity, Shirakawa said. The BOJ pumped 23 trillion yen ($225 billion) into the financial system over the past three weeks, the most in at least six years, as banks stored cash on concern other financial institutions may follow Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. into bankruptcy.

``It's appropriate for each nation to make a judgment based on its own economy and prices,'' Shirakawa said at a press conference in Tokyo after his board left the key interest rate at 0.5 percent. Any coordinated action that doesn't reflect this would be ``undesirable,'' he said.