The
Japanese yen rose during Tuesday’s trading session after the Bank of Japan
(BOJ) decided to keep its monetary policy unchanged and raised growth forecasts
for the first time in a year.
As
of 07:32 GMT, the Japanese yen rose against the U.S dollar by 0.17 percent at
110.00, where the USDJPY retreated from the peak of 110.29 recorded on January 17,
the highest since May last year.
The
rise in the Japanese yen came after the BOJ kept its short-term interest rate
at -0.1 percent in line with expectations and pledged to maintain its long-term
yield curve policy.
Also,
the BOJ raised its forecast for economic growth for the fiscal year of 2019
through March to 0.8 percent this fiscal year, up from 0.6 percent estimated issued
three months ago.
The
BOJ attributed the rise in growth projections to the rise in optimism after the
signing of the US-China trade agreement.
“Progress
in U.S.-China trade talks and Brexit have led to an improvement in risk
sentiment, pushing up stock prices and long-term rates in many countries,”
said BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda at his post-meeting news conference.
Regarding
prices, the BOJ lowered its inflation forecast for the current fiscal year,
with the consumer price index expected to rise by only one percent and not 1.1
percent as expected in October.
The
drive toward reaching the inflation goal "is maintained but is not yet
sufficiently firm," the BOJ also noted.
Additionally,
the spread of a pneumonia-like virus in China has led to a sudden bout of risk
aversion in the markets and prompted investors to divert liquidity to safe
havens, including the Japanese yen.
Meanwhile, the dollar
index, which measures the performance of six major currencies against the US
dollar, surged 0.01 percent at 97.37.
