BoJ policy board left its target overnight call rate steady at 0.50% at its meeting Tuesday. The decision, by unanimous vote, had been widely expected. The BoJ maintained its assessment of the economy as "sluggish," indicating in its statement that "while carefully monitoring movement in global financial markets, we will continue to strive to maintain market stability." Though markets have generally looked for the BoJ to maintain policy on hold into next year, there has been recent speculation on potential coordinated rate cuts with other major central banks in the face of recent global financial market turmoil and the deterioration in world economic outlook.