Bank of Japan holds steady on rates, policy measures

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The Bank of Japan on Thursday kept interest rates unchanged and held off further easing measures, repeating its view that the world's third-largest economy was 'picking up moderately'.

The BoJ kept rates at between zero and 0.1 per cent and left unchanged its key policy tool, a 70-trillion-yen ($891-billion) asset purchase programme, after a two-day policy meeting.

"Japan's economy has started picking up moderately as domestic demand remains firm mainly supported by reconstruction demand (following last year's quake-tsunami disaster)," the bank said in a statement.

The central bank said that 'overseas economies have shown moderate improvement' but added that 'in global financial markets some nervousness continues to be seen, mainly due to concern about the European debt problem'.

The BoJ's decision was largely in line with market expectations, and came after the US Federal Reserve and European Central Bank also held off fresh measures following recent policy meetings.

Last month, the BoJ said it expected Japan's economy to expand by 2.2 per cent in the fiscal year through March 2013, slightly lower than its April outlook of 2.3-per cent growth but still above a January forecast of 2 per cent.

It kept a 1.7 per cent growth forecast for the next fiscal year unchanged.

Japan's economy was hammered last year by the quake-tsunami disaster which wreaked havoc on industrial production, while flooding in Thailand and the yen's surge to record highs against the dollar later in the year also hurt growth.