USDJPY is back to falling; market players like the Yen right now. The Japanese Yen is getting stronger against the USD on Thursday. The current quote for the instrument is 110.08. The BoJ Governor said that the regulator would stick to its firm stance in relation to monetary policy, even when the time came to decide on loosening it. The policy would continue until the Japanese inflation reached 2%. In this light, the BoJ’s point of view is completely different from the ones of the US Fed and the ECB. Major global Central Banks believe that 2% y/y inflation is perfect for economies to show stable growth. In the USA and the Euro Area, the current values of the indicator are about 5% and 3% respectively and that’s way above the target.
At the same time, inflation in Japan is negative in most cases. According to the latest forecasts, the indicator is expected to be 1% in 2023, which is also below the regulator’s target of 2%. The Bank of Japan often brings out the difference between the states of the key economic sectors. For example, the labour market in Japan managed to remain quite stable during the pandemic, while the same can't be said for the USA. Fundamentally, the Japanese economy is stable, but the inflation issue should be resolved. The method used by the BoJ is keeping its monetary policy soft.
According to the BoJ Governor, the regulator is not currently considering any interruptions in buying ETFs or strategies of closing the QE program. These issues will be discussed when inflation reaches 2%. We remind you that the regulator’s benchmark interest rate remains at -0.10%, while the 10-year bond yield is close to zero. The BoJ says that the interest rates will remain low even if the fiscal policy becomes more aggressive.
