Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda pushed the likelihood of an October rate hike further to the sidelines Friday with a cautious message that pointed to ongoing concern over the market meltdown that followed July’s rate increase.

NEW YORK/LONDON >> The dollar strengthened against the yen today after the Bank of Japan left interest rates unchanged and indicated that it was not in a hurry to hike them again.

The yen pared its losses on Friday as the Bank of Japan (BOJ) sounded optimistic about growth and signalled it will be judicious about further policy tightening, while the dollar had its own problems as markets priced in more rapid U.

Japanese inflation rose slightly in August, with prices up 2.8 percent year-on-year, official data showed Friday, hours before the Bank of Japan was widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged.

Japan’s key inflation gauge accelerated in August for a fourth consecutive month, hours before the Bank of Japan is scheduled to wrap up its latest policy decision meeting.

Japan's core consumer inflation accelerated for the fourth straight month in August and tracked comfortably above the central bank's 2% target, data showed on Friday, keeping alive expectations for further interest rate hikes.