BOJ Keeps Monetary Policy Unchanged

Tokyo, March 10 (Jiji Press)--Bank of Japan policymakers Friday voted unanimously to keep the central bank's massive monetary easing policy unchanged.

The BOJ will keep short-term interest rates at minus 0.1 pct and continue to guide 10-year government bond yields to around zero pct.

The officials maintained the BOJ's 0.5 pct bond yield cap after it was raised from 0.25 pct in December last year.

The central bank will continue monetary easing "as long as it is necessary for maintaining that target in a stable manner," the BOJ said in a statement after a two-day policy meeting, referring to its 2 pct inflation goal.

The latest monetary policy meeting was the last for Haruhiko Kuroda, who steps down as BOJ governor on April 8. Parliament confirmed economist Kazuo Ueda as the next governor on Friday.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]