LONDON, Feb 9 Reuters The dollar headed for a fourth weekly gain on Friday, pushing the yen to a 10month low, as traders dialled back bets on how quickly the Bank of Japan might raise interest rates and how soon the Federal Reserve will cut them.

BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda said on Friday there was a high chance for easy monetary conditions to persist even after the central bank ends negative interest rate policy, which the market expects to happen as early as next month.

That echoed dovish comments from his deputy, Shinichi Uchida, a day earlier that it39;s hard to imagine that rates would rise rapidly.

In contrast, a raft of Federal Reserve officials this week have signalled the central bank has no pressing need to cut interest rates, thereby giving the dollar an extra tailwind.

Central bank officials have all been singing from the same songsheet and that is, yes, we are willing to fight inflation, but it39;s too early, Hargreaves Lansdown head of money and markets Susannah Streeter said.

A word of caution is coming through that rates will stay higher for longer and early rate cuts are unfounded. That is giving the dollar extra strength … That is what is propelling the yen weaker again.

The yen was little changed at 149.42 per dollar after trading at 149.575 earlier, its weakest since Nov. 27. It is heading for a 0.68 slide this week, having fallen in value in five out of the last six weeks.

On Friday morning in Tokyo, Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki…