BOJ's Kuroda keeps pledge to maintain massive stimulus

TOKYO (Reuters) - Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda on Thursday reiterated his pledge to maintain the central bank's massive stimulus programme for as long as needed to achieve the bank's 2 percent target.

"Japan's economy is expected to continue expanding moderately" and help accelerate inflation towards the BOJ's target, Kuroda said in a speech at a quarterly meeting of the central bank's regional branch managers.

Under a yield curve control policy adopted in 2016, the BOJ pledges to guide short-term interest rates at minus 0.1 percent and the 10-year government bond yield around zero percent.

(Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim)