Tokyo,  The Bank of Japan on Thursday announced to maintain its ultralow rate policy, bucking the global trend of tightening policy to restrain soaring inflation.

At the end of a two-day policy meeting, the central bank set short-term interest rates unchanged at minus 0.1 per cent, in line with expectations, amid moves to support the economy by guiding 10-year Japanese government bond yields around zero per cent, reports Xinhua news agency.

The yen has been falling sharply against the US dollar, shortly after the Federal Reserve went ahead with another interest rate hike.

On Thursday, the US dollar rose above the 145-yen line in Tokyo trading, hitting a 24-year high.