TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The Bank of Japan is considering holding off on raising interest rates at next week's policy meeting as uncertainties grow over the U.S. economic outlook under the trade policies of the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump, sources familiar with the matter said Friday.

The BOJ will hold a two-day monetary policy meeting starting Wednesday where it will carefully monitor whether the current wage hike momentum continues into the next year's spring wage negotiations, the sources said.

The BOJ is inclined to take a cautious approach even as key economic indicators are moving in line with its expectations, a prerequisite that Governor Kazuo Ueda said needs to be met for the bank to go ahead with further monetary tightening, they said.

The bank's board members are expected to make a final rate decision based on the outcome of the U.S. Federal Reserve's policy meeting scheduled prior to the policy meeting as well as on foreign exchange moves, according to the sources.

Still, the Japanese central bank is exploring the right timing to hike its policy rate from the current level of around 0.25 percent on the view that the country's real interest rates remain at an extremely low level historically.

Core consumer prices have been on or above the BOJ's 2 percent target for more than two years.