( dpa )- Japan's central bank decided on Friday to maintain its key short-term interest rate unchanged at 0.5 per cent amid lingering concerns in the global markets.
Nine members of the Bank of Japan's policy board voted unanimously at the end of its two-day meeting to forego another interest rate hike due to spreading fears over a possible slowdown of the world's second-largest economy.
The bank ended its quantitative monetary policy with near-zero interest rate in February 2007 and raised it for the first time in six years to 0.25 per cent.
The rate was raised again to 0.5 per cent in July.