SINGAPORE, March 12 (Reuters) - The yen was headed for its sharpest daily decline against the dollar in a month on Tuesday as the latest comments from Japanese officials dampened bets of an imminent policy pivot by the Bank of Japan as early as next week.

Elsewhere, the greenback held broadly steady ahead of a key reading on U.S. inflation due later in the day that will provide further clarity on how soon the Federal Reserve could commence its rate easing cycle this year.

The yen was last 0.4% lower at 147.47 per dollar and fell by the same extent against the British pound, after having risen to a one-month top of 188.01 earlier in the session.

Its move lower followed comments from BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda, who on Tuesday offered a slightly bleaker assessment of the country's economy than he had in January.

Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said separately on Tuesday that Japan was not at a stage where it could declare deflation as beaten.

Their remarks come ahead of the BOJ's policy meeting next week and amid mounting speculation that the central bank could scrap its negative interest rate policy at the meeting, which had in turn sent the yen rallying.

"I think there's more uncertainty now, and I will expect there's going to be a bit more volatility into the BOJ meeting," said Alvin Tan, head of Asia FX strategy at RBC Capital Markets.

"Whether they're going to move in March or not, I think that's really still up in the air."

The one-week implied volatility on dollar/yen, which measures expectations for price swings in the currency pair, jumped to 12.115% on Tuesday, its highest level since December.

EYES ON U.S. INFLATION

In the broader market, the euro retreated from a roughly two-month high hit last week and last bought $1.0936.

Sterling rose 0.04% to $1.2816, though was some distance away from Friday's more than seven-month peak.

Currency moves other than the yen were subdued and the greenback halted its recent decline ahead of the U.S. inflation report out later on Tuesday.

While expectations are for core consumer prices to have risen 0.3% on a monthly basis in February, investors will be looking closely for any upward surprises as was the case in January, which could derail the pace of expected Fed rate cuts.

"Were we to get a 0.2%, I think the market will be back on the scent of a possible May first Fed rate cut, and if we were to get a 0.4%, I think the market will be casting some doubt on a cut as early as June," said Ray Attrill, head of FX strategy at National Australia Bank.

"So in that sense, I think it's right to think that there will be a high degree of market sensitivity to anything other than a 0.3% core print."

The Australian dollar slipped 0.04% to $0.6612, while the New Zealand dollar edged 0.02% lower to $0.6169.

The dollar index rose 0.04% to 102.83, having hit a roughly two-month low of 102.33 last week.

The fall in the greenback has come on the back of rising bets the Fed could begin cutting rates by June, particularly after comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell last week cemented those expectations.

Jobs data released on Friday also showed that underlying labour market conditions in the world's largest economy were softening as the unemployment rate increased to a two-year high of 3.9% in February.

In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin edged 0.78% lower to $71,587, but remained just a whisker away from surpassing a record high set in the previous session.

Ether peaked at $4,093.70, its highest since 2021, though later pared some of those gains to last stand at $4,004.30.

(Reporting by Rae Wee; Editing by Jamie Freed)