Tokyo - The Bank of Japan decided to hold its key short-term interest rate unchanged at 0.3 per cent Friday.

The policy board of Japan's central bank voted unanimously to keep the interest rate steady as the nation's economy "has been increasingly sluggish," the bank said in a statement at the end of a two-day meeting.

The bank lowered its short-term interest rate to the current 0.3 per cent from 0.5 per cent last month to help the world's second-largest economy weather the global financial crisis. (dpa)