(Bloomberg) -- The Bank of Japan said it would keep interest rates extremely low though at least around spring 2020 while it left its key monetary stimulus settings unchanged. It forecast that it won’t hit its 2 percent inflation target for at least another three years.

Keeping policy settings unchanged was expected by 45 of 48 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The BOJ projects 1.6 percent inflation for the year ending in March 2022, nine years after Governor Haruhiko Kuroda launched its radical stimulus program.

The central bank’s outlook is a less than auspicious sign for some of its global peers, who are struggling with their own stubbornly low inflation and facing talk of "Japanification." The BOJ’s stance Thursday underscores that it has limited tools to stoke inflation or cope with a severe economic downturn, and must keep a close eye on side effects.

To contact the reporters on this story: Toru Fujioka in Tokyo at tfujioka1@bloomberg.net;Masahiro Hidaka in Tokyo at mhidaka@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brett Miller at bmiller30@bloomberg.net, Henry Hoenig

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.