The Japanese yen weakened today, falling against the US dollar, after Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said that the central bank may ease its already extremely accommodative monetary policy further.
Kuroda suggested today that the central bank may step in if a rise of the yen will hurt the economy and pose an obstacle for inflation reaching the 2% target:
If (currency moves) are having an impact on the economy and prices, and if we consider it necessary to achieve our price target, we’ll consider easing policy.
Among possible easing measures are interest rate cuts, expanding the asset purchase program, and printing money with increasing speed. But Kuroda mentioned that policy makers should consider negative impact of such actions as near-zero interest rates have already hurt profits of financial institutions:
Whatever we do, however, we need to carefully balance the benefits and the costs of the step such as the impact on financial intermediation and market functioning.
USD/JPY rose from 110.58 to 110.78 as of 12:39 GMT today. CHF/JPY traded at 110.12 after opening at 110.00 and rising to the daily high of 110.40.
If you have any questions, comments or opinions regarding the Japanese Yen,
feel free to post them using the commentary form below.
