BOJ eases policy, expands ETF buying

TOKYO (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan expanded monetary stimulus on Friday through a modest increase in purchases of exchange-rated funds, yielding to pressure from the government and financial markets for bolder action to spur growth and accelerate inflation towards its 2 percent target.

But the central bank maintained its base money target at 80 trillion yen ($775 billion) as well as the pace of purchases for other assets including Japanese government bonds.

It also left unchanged the 0.1 percent interest it charges to a portion of excess reserves financial institutions park with the central bank. BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda will hold a news conference at 3:30 p.m. (0630 GMT).

($1 = 103.1500 yen)

(Reporting by Leika Kihara, Stanley White, Tetsushi Kajimoto and Minami Funakoshi; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Edmund Klamann)