8:21 - The Bank of Japan refrained from bolstering its record monetary stimulus as policy makers gauge the impact of the negative interest-rate strategy they adopted in January. Governor Haruhiko Kuroda and his board kept the target for increasing the monetary base unchanged, and left their benchmark rate at minus 0.1 percent, as forecast by 35 of 40 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. With the BOJ far from its 2 percent inflation goal and growth stalling, most analysts have seen additional stimulus as just a matter of time.