The Bank of Japan has injected a record ¥21.8 trillion (£165bn) into the Japanese economy to limit the financial devastation

<p>The Bank of Japan has injected a record ¥21.8 trillion (£165bn) into the Japanese economy to limit the financial devastation wreaked by the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power crisis.<br /><br />The unprecedented intervention failed to prevent the country's main stock market index plunging by more than 6%, but is thought to have averted a steeper fall.<br /><br />Tokyo's Nikkei index dragged down shares across the world as investors worried that a decline in the world's third biggest economy would reduce the value of goods and services the country bought from overseas.<br /><br />The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares slumped by nearly 1% and its Europe-wide equivalent fell by 1.06%. In the US, the S&P 500 was down 1.15% in afternoon trading, while Germany's Dax and France's CAC 40 indices ended the day down 1.65% and 1.3% respectively.<br /><br />Analysts said European shares would probably have fallen further, if Brussels had not agreed at the weekend to increase the eurozone's bailout fund from around ¤250bn (£216bn) to ¤440bn, making a repeat of the Irish and Greek meltdowns less likely.<br /><br />As Japanese workers battled to prevent a nuclear meltdown and the unrest continued in the Middle East, the price of oil and gas increased amid concerns that Japan, a country heavily dependent on nuclear energy, may need to significantly step up its consumption of fossil fuels.<br /><br />Japan typically gets about a third of its energy from nuclear power, which has seen its capacity reduced by more than a fifth by the country's worst earthquake and left 11 reactors out of action.</p>

The Bank of Japan has injected a record ¥21.8 trillion (£165bn) into the Japanese economy to limit the financial devastation

The Bank of Japan has injected a record ¥21.8 trillion (£165bn) into the Japanese economy to limit the financial devastation wreaked by the ...

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