The Bank of Japan unanimously voted to leave its overnight call rate target at 0.1% Wednesday as widely expected, and raised its economic assessment for the second straight month. However, the central bank refrained from mentioning its special liquidity steps to buy corporate bonds and commercial paper outright, which some analysts had expected the bank to discontinue as credit conditions improved. The BOJ maintained its assessment from last month that financial conditions were increasingly showing signs of improvement, and it said the economy was recovering.
