Investing.com - The Bank of Japan as expected voted to keep the monetary base at ¥80 trillion annually along with negative rates at minus 0.1% on Thursday as it signaled that inflation expectations have weakened.
The vote on the monetary base was 8 to 1 and 7 to 2 for negative rates.
In the short term, the BoJ downgraded its view, saying, "The year-on-year rate of increase in the CPI is likely to be slightly negative or about zero percent for the time being, due to the effects of the decline in energy prices." Previously it said it will be around zero.
But the BoJ added that "as the underlying trend in inflation steadily rises," the core inflation measure - which excludes volatile fresh food prices - is likely to "accelerate toward 2%."