BOJ leaves monetary policy unchanged.

As expected, the Bank of Japan has maintained its pledge to expand the monetary base by ¥60T to ¥70T a year. The BOJ also kept its assessment of the economy unchanged, saying that it's "starting to recover moderately," and noted that "inflation expectations appear to be rising." BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda warned that Japan needs to keep its fiscal discipline, stressing that the government can increase its sales tax as planned and pull the economy out of deflation.