The Bank of Japan (BoJ) released its interest rate decision on Wednesday. The BoJ kept its monetary policy unchanged (interest rate: 0.00-0.10%, monetary base target: 275 trillion yen). The central bank will expand its monetary base at an annual pace of 80 trillion yen. This decision was expected by analysts.

The BoJ board member, Takahide Kiuchi, said again that the central bank should cut its asset purchases to 45 trillion yen annually.

The BoJ lowered its GDP growth forest for financial year 2015/16 to 1.7% from the previous estimate of 2.0%. Forecasts for financial years 2016/17 and 2017/18 remained unchanged.

The central bank cut its inflation for financial year 2015/16 to 0.7%, down from previous estimate of 0.8%, for financial year 2016/17 to 1.9%, down from previous estimate of 2.0%, and for financial year 2017/18 to 1.8%, down from previous estimate of 1.9%.

The BoJ noted that the country's economy continued to recover moderately.