Bank of Japan Maintains Stimulus TOKYO - The Bank of Japan maintained its huge monetary stimulus on Friday and upgraded its view on capital expenditure, encouraged by growing signs that the benefits of its aggressive policy action to escape deflation were broadening. After a two-day review, the central bank reiterated its view that Japan, the world's third-largest economy, was recovering moderately, suggesting that no additional monetary policy measures were needed to counter the pain from next year's sales tax increase. "Capital expenditure is picking up as corporate profits improve," the Bank of Japan said in a statement. That was slightly more optimistic than last month, when it said capital spending was showing signs of a pickup. As widely expected, the Bank of Japan kept intact its April commitment to double base money via asset purchases to meet its target of lifting inflation to 2 percent in roughly two years. The policy review followed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's decision on Tuesday to proceed with a planned increase in the sales tax to 8 percent in April, from 5 percent, and cushion its impact with a ¥5 trillion, or $51 billion, stimulus package. The Bank of Japan expects the sales tax increase to shave about 0.7 percentage point off growth. For now, it sees no need to expand its stimulus further, confident that the Japanese economy can withstand the hit. "I don't think the B.O.J."s view that the sales tax hike won't derail the recovery is too optimistic," said Junko Nishioka, chief Japan economist at RBS Securities. "But the 2 percent inflation remains a distant goal," she said. Core consumer inflation could hit 1 percent early next year. But it's an uphill battle from there. Japan's economy has now grown for three successive quarters as Mr. Abe's reflationary policies bolstered household spending and drove down the yen, benefiting exports, with annualized growth of 3.8 percent from April to June outpacing many Group of Seven nations. Big manufacturers" sentiment has risen to its highest in nearly six years, the B.O.J."s "tankan" survey for the September quarter showed, underscoring its view that the economy is on track for a moderate recovery.