The Bank of Japan Policy Board said Friday it will maintain its virtually zero-interest rate policy while putting off additional monetary easing to cope with impact from Europe's debt crisis and the yen's sharp rise.
As a result of the unanimous agreement reached by the nine board members, the BOJ will leave unchanged its credit and asset-purchasing programs totaling ¥50 trillion that were announced as additional monetary easing measures in August.
Following the two-day board meeting, BOJ Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa said uncertainty over Europe's debt crisis has begun affecting the actual economy of the region.