BOJ Governor Ueda's comments at news conference

JAPAN-ECONOMY/BOJ-UEDA (

March 19 - The Bank of Japan held interest rates steady on Wednesday, as expected, as policymakers opted to spend more time gauging the impact of potential higher U.S. tariffs on the export-dependent economy.

BOJ Governor Ueda's comments at news conference

This decision came amid concerns about a global slowdown driven by U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff policy, which overshadowed wage and price data indicating Japan's progress toward sustainably achieving the BOJ's 2% inflation target.

Following are excerpts from BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda's comments at his post-meeting news conference, which was conducted in Japanese, as translated by Reuters:

RISING FOOD PRICES MAY IMPACT INFLATION, STILL BELOW 2%

"Various food prices, including the price of rice, are increasing. While this is largely due to weather and other factors, they could affect underlying inflation through household sentiment and inflation expectations. We need to be mindful of such side effects on underlying inflation. There's no change to our view that while underlying inflation is gradually heightening, it remain below 2%."

RATE HIKES POSSIBLE IF ECONOMY AND PRICES ALIGN

"If the economy and prices move in line with our forecast, we will continue to raise our policy rate and adjust the degree of monetary support as current real interest rates are very low."

WAGE HIKES

"This year's wage negotiations so far have shown wage hikes not just among big firms, but smaller firms. It shows wage gains are broadening. This is roughly in line with our projection in January ... we will look not just at wages, but the economy, prices and risks in deciding policy."

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