TOKYO, March 16-- the Bank of Japan (BOJ), the Japanese central bank, on Monday kicked off its two-day policy meeting, with an eye on ongoing annual wage talks which would impact on consumer prices.

The Policy Board meeting comes as many major Japanese companies are expected to raise pay scales for their employees during the ongoing spring wage talks, although it remains to be seen whether such a move would spread to small and medium-sized firms.

Local reports said that the BOJ is likely to leave its current ultraloose monetary policy unchanged and retain its current economic assessment given that the economy is recovering moderately.

Current relatively low prices of crude oil have also weighed on Japan's consumer prices, with the core consumer price index rising only 0.2 percent in January from a year earlier, even smaller than the 0.5 percent rise in the previous month.

The figure, which excluded the impact of the sales tax hike in last April, was the lowest growth since May 2013, triggering skepticism about the chances of the central bank achieving its 2- percent inflation goal in the period centered on coming fiscal 2015, said local report.