BOJ's Shirakawa Says Three Dissenters Wanted Larger Rate Cut

By Lily Nonomiya and Mayumi Otsuma

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said three members of his policy board who voted against today's interest-rate cut wanted a larger reduction.

One dissenter wanted to keep rates unchanged, Shirakawa said at a press conference in Tokyo today after his policy board cut the benchmark key overnight lending rate to 0.3 percent.

Shirakawa casted the deciding vote after four members opposed the decision.

To contact the reporters on this story: Lily Nonomiya in Tokyo at lnonomiya@bloomberg.net; Mayumi Otsuma in Tokyo at motsuma@bloomberg.net