Tokyo, Jan 18 (TIWN) The Bank of Japan (BOJ) on Tuesday raised its inflation forecast for the fiscal year from April, with the view based on a comparatively weak yen in the face of rising energy and raw material costs.

But with inflation set to remain below its 2% target in the coming years, the BOJ stressed its resolve to maintain its ultra-loose monetary policy even as its global counterparts move toward exiting from crisis-mode policies.   

As widely expected, the BOJ left unchanged a -0.1% target for short-term interest rates and a pledge to guide long-term rates around 0% at a two-day meeting that ended on Tuesday.  In a quarterly outlook report, the BOJ revised up its inflation forecast for the year beginning in April to a 1.1% increase from the previous estimate of a 0.9% increase.  It also slightly raised its inflation forecast for fiscal 2023 to 1.1% from 1.0%.  "Risks to prices are generally balanced," the BOJ said in the report. That compared with its assessment in October, which said risks to the price outlook were skewed to the downside.