The Bank of Japan board on Thursday voted unanimously to hold its key interest rate at zero to 0.1 per cent, and refrained from taking another monetary easing step. "Japan's economy appears to stop weakening. Exports continue to decrease, but the pace of decrease has been moderating" dpa quoted the central bank as saying in a statement. In January, the bank decided to set a target of 2-per-cent inflation in an effort to overcome the deflation that has plagued Japan for more than a decade. The economy shrank at an annualized pace of 0.4 per cent in the October-to-December quarter for the third-consecutive quarter of contraction amid falling exports, the government said Thursday.
