BOJ keeps rates unchanged at 0.5%

The Bank of Japan's Policy (BOJ) Board kept interest rates unchanged at 0.5 per cent at a meeting that ended today.

It has stuck to the current monetary policy since raising the key rate from 0.25 per cent in February, which was the first rate rise since July last year.

The BOJ also left its assessment of the economy unchanged in a monthly report today, saying it was expanding moderately.

The central bank also maintained its outlook that the economy will continue expanding moderately.

On prices, the BOJ said year-on-year changes in consumer prices are moving around zero per cent and are expected to stay near that level in the near term, due to lower oil prices compared with the previous year.

But in the long term, consumer prices will remain in an upward trend as the nation's output gap moves towards positive territory, the report said. Output was likely to stay in an uptrend on growing demand both overseas and domestically, the report also added.