June 14 (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan kept ultra-low interest rates on Friday but decided to start trimming its huge bond purchases in a slow but steady retreat from its massive monetary stimulus.
While it will continue to buy government bonds at the current pace of roughly 6 trillion yen ($38 billion) per month, the central bank decided to lay out details of its tapering plan for the next one to two years at its July meeting.
Following are excerpts from BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda's comments at his post-meeting news conference, which was conducted in Japanese, as translated by Reuters:
ON TAPERING BOND BUYING
"In trimming bond buying, it's important to leave flexibility to ensure market stability, while doing so in a predictable form. The size of reduction will likely be significant. But specific pace, framework and degree will be decided upon discussions with market participants."
(Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
