Yen Down as Markets Await Dovish Words from BoJ

The Japanese is currently dropping against its major Forex counterparts, as the market professionals expect that the country’s central bank will have to lower its economic growth forecast and leave the monetary policy at its loose state.

The yen fell against the US dollar for the first day since Tuesday and declined against the euro and the British pound today. The Bank of Japan is having its policy meeting on April 28, where the Statement on Monetary Policy and Outlook for Economic Activity and Prices are to be released. The vast majority of the market participants expects that the interest rate will be left unchanged between 0 and 0.1 percent, while the GDP growth forecast for 2011 will get halved.

While the Japanese yen struggles with the consequences of the natural disasters and the years of deflation that prevent monetary policy tightening in the foreseeable future, other countries, namely those of the Asian region and with the emerging economies, raise their rates. Yield-hungry investors and traders are forced to sell the Japanese currency to buy assets with higher interest.

USD/JPY rose from 81.81 to 82.07 as of 9:24 GMT today. EUR/JPY went up from 119.16 to 119.67, while GBP/JPY increased from 135.16 to 135.61 during the early trading session.

If you have any questions, comments or opinions regarding the Japanese Yen,
feel free to post them using the commentary form below.