TOKYO—The Bank of Japan projected inflation would exceed its target this year in fresh forecasts issued on Thursday, but maintained ultra-low interest rates and signaled its resolve to remain an outlier in a wave of global central banks’ policy tightening.
BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda brushed aside the chance of near-term policy tightening, saying he had “absolutely no plan” to raise interest rates or hike an implicit 0.25 percent cap set for the bank’s 10-year bond yield target.
“The economy is in the midst of recovering from the pandemic. Japan’s worsening terms of trade are also leading to an outflow of income,” Kuroda told a news conference….