The Japanese yen was trading either flat or higher against its most-traded rivals today as the coronavirus pandemic continued to spread across the world, causing panic and expectations of a global economic recession.
While it looks like China has managed to successfully halt the spread of the COVID-19 disease, the situation in other countries worsens every day. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson entered self-isolation after testing positive for the coronavirus. Meanwhile, the United States topped China in the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19.
With many countries banning travel and initiating a lockdown, closing the majority of businesses, a global recession looks inevitable. And while governments and central banks announce stimulus measures, it is hard to tell how successful they will be without knowing when the pandemic will be defeated. Besides, market analysts argue that stimulus measures have been already priced in, for the most part, limiting their impact on markets.
As for today’s macroeconomic data in Japan, a report from the Statistics Bureau of Japan showed that the Tokyo core Consumer Price Index rose by 0.4% in March from a year ago, matching expectations. Month-on-month, consumer inflation was flat.
USD/JPY dropped from 109.40 to 108.82 as of 12:09 GMT today, touching the low of 108.23 intraday. GBP/JPY was about flat at 132.93 after falling to the session minimum of 132.11 earlier. CAD/JPY declined from 77.86 to 77.29.
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