The Japanese yen was weaker today after the Bank of Japan maintained its monetary stimulus at today’s policy meeting. The drop was not particularly big against the US dollar and the yen was trading near the opening level versus the euro and the central bank did not expand stimulus.
The BoJ announced today:
The Bank of Japan will conduct money market operations so that the monetary base will increase at an annual pace of about 60–70 trillion yen.
The projections for annual growth of consumer prices and gross domestic product in 2014 remained largely unchanged from the October’s forecast. The Consumer Price Index is expected to rise at the average pace of 3.3 percent, while GDP should expand by 1.4 percent, somewhat slower than in the previous estimate (1.5 percent).
The yen’s reaction to the announcement was rather subdued. The currency will likely continue to weaken because of excessive monetary accommodation, but without additional stimulus the decline may be limited.
USD/JPY was up from 104.28 to 104.43 as of 18:41 GMT after the earlier drop to 103.96. GBP/JPY jumped from 171.82 to 173.13. EUR/JPY traded near the opening level of 141.41.
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