let's go to ai uchida at our business desk. give us the details. >> they are tightening monetary policy. they decided to raise their key interest rate which has been near zero since the 2008 financial crisis. it wil

let's go to ai uchida at our business desk. give us the details. >> they are tightening monetary policy. they decided to raise their key interest rate which has been near zero since the 2008 financial crisis. it will 0 go up for .25% point. mortgage rates and car loans will go up because commercial banks will raise their rates too. they reached their decision overnight signaling confidence in the u.s. economy and job market. they released a statement after a two-day meeting. they raised their rate from 0.25 to 0.5% on thursday. it's a first increase in almost a decade. the labor market has shown considerable improvement this year and economic activity has been expanding at a moderate pace. fed chair janet yellen said the decision reflects the committee's confidence that the economy will further strengthen. she also stressed they would monitor economic conditions. >> with the economy performing well and expected to continue to do so, the committee judged that a modest increase in the federal funds rate target is now appropriate.

ai uchida joins us now from the business desk. the data came in negative, what's changed?> that's right. initially officials said during the july to september quarter, the economy contracted by 0.8%. now they say the economy grew on corporate investment. third quarter growth marks the first expansion in japan's gdp in two quarters. officials at the cabinet official released the revised numbers, and they now say the japanese economy grew by an annualized 1% in real terms during the three months. that is a 1.8 percentage point upgrade from the preliminary figure announced last month. growth in corporate investment was revised up from the initial minus 1.3% to plus 0.6%. housing investment also improved slightly to 2%. >>> japanese officials have also released the latest current account data that is the broadest measure of trade and investment with the rest of the world. the balance for october remained in the black for the 16th straight month. finance ministry officials say the surplus in october totaled nearly $12 billion. the trade account stayed in the black with a surplu

ai uchida joins us from the business desk. >> the numbers show an upbeat trend. managers have been spending more on upgrading their equipment and facilities. this tells us many businesses are optimistic. government officials say japanese companies place machinery orders worth about $7.3 billion in october. that's up 10.7% in yen terms from the month before marking a two-month consecutive rise. the numbers don't include the ship building and power sectors which tend to see large fluctuations. manufacturers increase their spending by 14.5%. improvements by nonmanufacturers were up 10.7%. >>> new york crude oil futures briefly hit their lowest level, nearly seven years on concerns of a global glut. the benchmark wti futures on tuesday fell below $37 a barrel at one point. its lowest level since february 2009. sell orders continue to surge following a decision last week by the organization of the petroleum exporting countries to maintain their current output. oil price started to slide in autumn last year. the prices looked like they had bottomed out this spring but

ai uchida joins us from the business desk. what's behind their decision? >> so many concerns, catherine, that they have possible deflation, china-related risks, also the economic impact of the terror attack in paris. the loosened monetary policy includes extending the ecb's quantitative easing program for another six months to boost the economy. ecb president mario draghi and other board members have been meeting in frankfurt. they said the board has decided to extend the central bank's bond purchases from september 2016 to march 2017. they added they will buy a greater variety of bonds than before. the board is also lowering the interest rate on deposits from commercial banks from minus 0.2% to minus 0.3%. the cut is meant to prompt commercial banks to increase lending. the ecb maintained its policy rate at the current level. ecb president draghi stressed the board's willingness to use all its available policy levers. >> given continued high structural unemployment and low potential outgrowth in the euro area, the ongoing cyclical recovery should be suppo

ai uchida joins us from the business desk with more. what makes us think that the policy makers will make a change? >> certain pieces of economic data have supported that. for example, prices are rising exact lip the way policy makers want. they have an inflation target of 2%. and data for last month showed that they are indeed right on target. officials have gathered in washington. they'll decide what to do during their two-day monetary policy meeting. the fed lowered the rate to prop up the u.s. economy after the global financial crisis symbolized by the collapse of lehman brothers in 2008. the u.s. unemployment rate hit 10% at one point. but that's history. the economy has been steadily recovering. the latest physician urs show the jobless rate has improved to 5%. fed chair janet yelp expressed an upbeat outlook op the economy two weeks ago. she said improvements are taking place in line with the central bank's expectations. market people are fairly certain that a rate hike, the first since june 2006, will come out of the meeting. an

ai uchida from our business desk, where are they heading? >> officials are looking to put together a package worth more than 96 trillion yen or $780 billion. that number is expected to exceed this year's which set a record. social security spending is expected to grow to around $260 billion to meet the needs of the aging population. the money will cover the costs of medical and nursing care. the defense budget will come in at more than $40 billion. the government plans to earmark funds for the purchase of is on pray transport aircraft and maneuver combat vehicles. on the revenue side tax collectors plan to bring more than $465 billion. they expect to get more money from corporate and income taxes due to strong business performance and wage hikes. >>> the government plans to reduce the issuance of new bonds in the current year to under $285 billion. it plans to above the fiscal 2016 budget at a cabinet meeting next thursday after further adjustments to medical fees and allocations to local governments. >>> nhk has learned that toshiba plans t