SINGAPORE, April 28 Reuters The Japanese yen fell to a nineyear low against the euro on Friday after the Bank of Japan BOJ left its ultraeasy monetary policy unchanged even as it scrapped a pledge to keep interest rates low.

The euro briefly rose to its highest level against the yen since December 2014 at 149.50. It was last up 1 at 148.98 yen with expectations the European Central Bank ECB will hike rates again next week also supporting the single currency.

The outcome of new BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda39;s first policy meeting was closely watched. As expected, the BOJ said it would maintain ultralow interest rates, and unanimously decided to make no changes to its yield curve control YCC policy.

However, the central bank removed a pledge to keep interest rates at current or lower levels and said it would conduct a broadperspective review of monetary policy.

That review is expected to last around one to oneandahalf years and would lay the groundwork for Ueda to gradually phase out his predecessor39;s massive stimulus programme.

The yen fell sharply also against the U.S. dollar, down 1.3 to 135.78, its lowest since March 10.

The hopes of a policy change has been somewhat dampened by the review, said Moh Siong Sim, a currency strategist at Bank of Singapore, adding that the likely length of the review might have cooled hopes of an imminent move in the policy setting.

For now, the outcome is read as a dovish outcome.

On Friday, however, government data showed core…