The Bank of Japan's Policy Board unanimously agreed Wednesday to maintain the current virtually zero-interest rate policy while shunning additional monetary easing to cope with impacts from the recent sharp rise in the yen.
As a result, the BOJ will leave unchanged its credit and asset-purchasing programs totaling ¥50 trillion, additional monetary easing measures that it announced last month.
The agreement, reached in a unanimous vote by the nine board members, said the dwindling U.S. economy, still suffering from balance-sheet adjustments in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, and the possible consequences of sovereign debt problems in Europe, remain economic risks for Japan that "warrant attention."