The Bank of Japan opened a two-day policy meeting Wednesday, with market watchers expecting the central bank to keep policy steady and exude economic optimism despite negative fallout from the first stage of the consumption tax hike in April.
The BOJ was set to announce Thursday that it will continue its massive buying of assets from financial institutions to flood the banking system with liquidity and drive inflation to 2 percent, sources close to the matter said.
The nine-member Policy Board, headed by BOJ Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda, was expected to maintain its basic stance on the economy after saying last month that it "continued to recover moderately," while noting the downward pressure the tax hike has put on private demand.