QUOTES-BOJ Governor Ueda's comments at news conference

BY Reuters | ECONOMIC | 09/20/24 02:38 AM EDT

Sept 20 (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan kept interest rates steady on Friday and revised up its assessment on consumption, signalling its confidence a solid economic recovery will allow the central bank to raise interest rates again in coming months.

As widely expected, the BOJ kept short-term interest rates steady at 0.25% at a two-day meeting that ended on Friday.

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:

INTEREST RATES

"Our decision on monetary policy will depend on economic, price and financial developments at the time. Japan's real interest rates remain extremely low. If our economic and price forecasts are achieved, we will raise interest rates and adjust the degree of monetary support accordingly."

ECONOMIC OUTLOOK

"The outlook for overseas economic development is highly uncertain. Markets remain unstable. We need to scrutinise such developments carefully for the time being."

(Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

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Lower-quality debt securities generally offer higher yields, but also involve greater risk of default or price changes due to potential changes in the credit quality of the issuer. Any fixed income security sold or redeemed prior to maturity may be subject to loss.

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