Investing.com - The Bank of Japan board Thursday decided by a unanimous vote to leave the bank's policy target unchanged, as expected, keeping its cautiously optimistic economic outlook despite recent soft retail sales.
"The Bank of Japan will conduct money market operations so that the monetary base will increase at an annual pace of about ¥60 to ¥70 trillion," the BoJ said.
Under the current easing framework, the BoJ is committed to doubling the sum of money in circulation and deposited at the central bank in two years from ¥138 trillion at the end of 2012.
The BoJ repeated that the economy is "expected to continue its moderate recovery trend" and the pullback in demand caused by the April sales tax hike is "expected to wane gradually."