Tokyo, March 23 (Bloomberg) -- Bank of Japan board members on Feb. 9voted 6-3 to keep the central bank's target rate for overnight loans betweenbanks steady, citing continuing growth in the nation's economy, minutes of theboard's meeting show. Instead of approving a rate cut then, the board voted to 8-1 to reduce themostly symbolic discount rate, at which member banks can borrow overnightfunds from the central bank. Monday, the central bank pushed down its target for the interbank rate to nearzero from 0.25 percent. Also at Monday's meeting, the board decided toincrease the central bank's monthly bond purchases from investors to pumpmore money into the nation's stagnant economy. Less than six weeks earlier, BOJ policymakers had a different view. ``Themajority of members concurred that the economy was still broadly in line withthe standard scenario of a gradual recovery, and thus, there was no need toconsider a return to the zero-interest-rate policy,'' the minutes said. Board members did raise concerns over slowing economic growth, depressedJapanese stocks and faltering export markets. At the Feb. 9 meeting, board members Teizo Taya, Nobuyuki Nakahara andKazuo Ueda opposed leaving the target interbank rate unchanged. Tayaproposed cutting the key rate to 0.1 percent and paring the discount rate to0.25 percent, but six members voted against those initiatives. Central bank policymakers also voted to introduce new loans for commercialbanks at the discount rate to help financial institutions borrow enough moneyto meet cash demand at the end of Japan's fiscal year on March 31. The central bank on Wednesday downgraded its assessment of Japan'seconomy, saying a recovery has stalled. In its March report, the BOJ said aslowing of global economic growth has caused Japan's net exports to``plummet,'' leading manufacturers to cut production. Profit growth is ``slowing significantly,'' which will sap capital spending, thebank said. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 stock index has fallen 34 percent in the pastyear.