The Bank of Japan held monetary policy steady in its June board review, pledging to keep asset purchases around the current target of 80 trillion yen ($727 million) and sounding more upbeat on the economy, according to a release on Friday at the end of a two-day meeting.

Share Market Live

NSE

"Private consumption has increased resilience against a background of steady improvement in the employment and income situation," the BOJ said in a statement.

At its May meeting, the Bank of Japan raised its economic forecasts and kept policy steady, as was widely expected.Later on Friday, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda will hold a press conference at 0630 GMT to discuss the deliberations of the central bank board.

The BOJ raised its economic assessment. It increased its real gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast for the 2017-18 fiscal year to 1.6 percent from the 1.5 percent projected in January. But it lowered its core consumer price index (CPI) growth forecast to 1.4 percent from 1.5 percent in the same period.

The central bank has been pursuing a yield-curve control policy, introduced at its late-September meeting. The BOJ had set its target yield for the benchmark 10-year Japanese government bond at around zero percent, and it has been willing to intervene to keep the benchmark yield in line with its target.

The BOJ has taken essentially a "whatever it takes" stance on boosting inflation, saying it would maintain an easy stance until inflation exceeded its target of 2 percent "in a stable manner."

First Published:Jun 16, 2017 8:34 AM IST