BOJ keeps policy steady, sticks to moderate recovery view

TOKYO (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan kept monetary policy steady on Wednesday and maintained its view that the economy would gradually emerge from the coronavirus pandemic's devastating blow, signalling a pause after delivering stimulus twice so far this year.

"Japan's economy is expected to gradually improve from the latter half of this year. But the pace of recovery will be moderate as the effect of the global coronavirus pandemic will remain," the BOJ said in a quarterly outlook report.

As widely expected, the BOJ left unchanged its short-term interest rate target at -0.1% and a pledge to guide the 10-year government bond yield around 0% by a 8-1 vote.

BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda will hold a news conference at 3:30 p.m. (0630 GMT) to explain the policy decision.

The BOJ eased monetary policy in March and April, focusing on steps to calm markets and ease corporate funding strains caused by the pandemic.

(Reporting by Leika Kihara, Tetsushi Kajimoto, Kaori Kaneko and Daniel Leussink; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim)