TOKYO (AFP) -- Japan's central bank left its super-low interest rates unchanged again Tuesday following recent heavy losses on global stock markets and a spike in the value of the yen.

The Bank of Japan decided in an 8-1 vote to leave its benchmark rate at 0.5 percent, where it has been since February, it said in a statement.
The decision came a day after Japanese share prices tumbled to a 15-month low, although some calm returned Tuesday as stronger than expected domestic economic growth figures and a steadier yen helped to reassure investors.
Despite a gradual recovery from a slump stretching back over a decade, Japan's economy has taken longer than expected to decisively exit deflation, with consumer prices down for an eighth straight month in September.
Most analysts think another BoJ rate hike is now unlikely before early 2008.
""There are simply too many downside risks around the economy at this time for a near term rate hike to be given anything other than the most fleeting consideration,"" argued Glenn Maguire, chief Asia economist at Societe Generale.
The central bank last year raised interest rates for the first time in almost six years as Asia's largest economy slowly recovered from a decade-long slump.
It hiked rates again in February but has held them steady since then amid domestic political uncertainty and financial market volatility.
Japan's low interest rates are seen as a key factor behind the weakness of the yen in recent years, but the Japanese currency hit an 18-month high against the dollar on Monday as investors exited risky carry trades funded by selling the yen.
The stronger yen amounts to a de facto tightening of monetary policy as it reduces the cost of imports, keeping inflationary pressures in check, and also acts as a brake on exports, analysts said.
The BoJ's job has also been complicated by the fact that the Federal Reserve is cutting interest rates to try to cushion the U.S. economy from a housing slump.