The Bank of Japan Friday upgraded its core economic assessment slightly in January from December and added the economy is performing better than it expected it to three months ago. In its monthly economic report, the central bank said "Japan's economy is recovering steadily," adding the word "steadily" to its December assessment. This marks the first upgrade in its monthly report since September, and signals the BOJ is more confident of the economic recovery, which is being led by improvements in production, wages and personal spending. It's also the first time the Bank has used "steadily" to describe the economy since the burst of the bubble economy in the early 1990s. The BOJ also conducted an interim review of the economy, in which it noted the economy is outperforming its October forecast. "The economy is expected to deviate slightly above the forecasts for fiscal 2005 presented in the Outlook Report released in October 2005," the interim assessment said.