Tokyo - The Bank of Japan (BOJ) decided to maintain its key short-term interest rate unchanged at the end of a two-day meeting on Wednesday.

The bank's policy board voted unanimously to forego another interest rate hike amid the Japanese economy's sluggish growth.

The interest rate has remained fixed since February 2007, when it was raised from 0.25 per cent.

"Economic growth has been sluggish against the backdrop of high energy and materials prices and weaker growth in exports," the bank said in a statement.

BOJ, meanwhile, injected an additional 2 trillion yen (19.15 billion dollars) into the markets Wednesday in an effort to stabilize the markets affected by the fallout from the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers earlier this week.

Japan's central bank injected 2.5 trillion yen into the markets on Tuesday. (dpa)