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"Japan's economy continues to recover moderately as a trend, although some weaknesses are seen in exports and output on slowing growth in emerging economies," BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda told a news conference.
That was a slightly bleaker view than in January, when the BOJ said a pick-up in exports was underpinning a moderate economic recovery.
"The BOJ is trying hard to reduce the impact that negative rates are having on the financial sector, because banks have been very critical of this policy," said Hiroaki Muto, an economist at Tokai Tokyo Research Center.
"The downgrade of the economic assessment is a prelude to further easing," he said, adding that he expects the BOJ will ease monetary policy again in April.
JPY strengthen against USD 0.71% from 113.76 yens per dollar to 112.95 yens per dollar, after BoJ announced same monetary policy maintaining.
Oil prices fell around 2 percent on Tuesday, extending losses from the previous session as concerns took hold that a six-week recovery may have petered out due to ongoing oversupply.
The drops came after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said that global demand for its crude would be less than previously thought in 2016 as supply from rivals proves more resilient to low prices, increasing the excess supply in the market this year.
OPEC expects global demand for its crude to average 31.52 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2016, down 90,000 bpd from last month's forecast.
The group said it pumped 32.28 million bpd in February, down about 175,000 bpd from January, mainly due to outages in Iraq and Nigeria.
But continuously high production figures mean that global output still exceeds demand by at least 1million bpd, weighing on markets.
International benchmark Brent crude futures LCOc1 were trading at $38.76 per barrel at 0748 GMT, down 77 cents, or 1.95 from their last settlement.
U.S. crude futures CLc1 were 77 cents lower at $36.41 a barrel.
Reference: Reuters, Bloomberg
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