URGENT: BOJ maintains ultralow rates at policy meeting

The Bank of Japan decided Friday to maintain ultralow rates as widely expected at it concluded its two-day policy-setting meeting, sticking to the view that it will require some time to achieve its 2 percent inflation target.

With no change to its program to keep borrowing costs extremely low, short-term interest rates will remain at minus 0.1 percent, while the BOJ will continue to guide 10-year Japanese government bond yields to around zero percent.