Jan 23 (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan raised its growth estimate and maintained its hawkish inflation forecasts on Friday even as it kept interest rates steady, signalling its confidence a moderate recovery
would justify raising still-low borrowing costs further.
At a two-day meeting that ended on Friday, the BOJ maintained its key policy rate at 0.75% in a widely expected decision after having just hiked the rate from 0.5% in December.
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:
IMPACT OF PAST RATE HIKES
"Not much time has passed since we last raised rates in December, but companies' fund demand continues to rise moderately. Banks' lending attitude remains active... Financial conditions remain accommodative in Japan. It might take some time to gauge the impact of our past rate hikes. We hope to scrutinise developments carefully."
RATE-HIKE PATH AND PACE
"We will continue to raise interest rates if our economic and price forecasts materialise. As for our rate-hike path and pace, that will depend on economic, price and financial developments at the time. We will carefully look at available data at each policy meeting, and update our view on economic and price developments, risks and the likelihood of achieving our forecasts."
(Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
