Economy to stay sluggish: BoJ

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TOKYO, Sept 17 (Internet): The Bank of Japan (BoJ) said Wednesday that it expected the world's second largest economy to remain sluggish for now amid market turmoil as it kept interest rates at a low 0.50 per cent.
The central bank governor said, however, that easing commodity prices were partially balancing out the effects of the chaos set off by the collapse of Wall Street titan Lehman Brothers.
The markets had expected the central bank to stand pat on its benchmark interest rate, which is the lowest among major economies and has been unchanged since February 2007.
Winding up the two-day policy board meeting, BoJ governor Masaaki Shirakawa kept his cards close to his chest on any plans to adjust rates.
"There are the plus and the minus in the prospects of the (Japanese) economy," Shirakawa told a news conference.
"A minus factor is the increasing instability in the global financial market and growing downside risks of the economy. On the other hand, commodity prices have recently been declining... which has the effect of easing the deterioration of terms of trade," Shirakawa said.