The Bank of Japan (BoJ) released its interest rate decision on Thursday. The central bank kept its interest rate unchanged at -0.1% as widely expected by analysts. The monetary base target remained unchanged at 275 trillion yen, while the central bank said that it will expand its monetary base at an annual pace of 80 trillion yen as expected by analysts.

The BoJ said that the country's economy continued to recover moderately, but exports and production were sluggish due to the slowdown in emerging economies.

The central bank expect inflation to be slightly negative or about 0% for the time being.