Japan, Great Britain decline to alter monetary policies

Story link: Japan, Great Britain decline to alter monetary policies

The Japanese yen saw mixed success on Thursday. It gained fractionally against the US dollar to ¥118.55 and rising 0.1 percent to ¥206.33 in relation to sterling. However, it dropped 0.1 percent to ¥141.79 against the euro.

These slight moves by the yen came after the Bank of Japan did not make any adjustments to its monetary policy and Bank governor Toshihiko Fukui said that he did not know if any change would be made at the bank’s next policy meeting in a month’s time. Speculation ahead of this month’s meeting had been that the time might have come to tighten monetary policy in light of rises in Japan’s core consumer price index and increased consumer confidence. The vote to continue the current policy was 7 - 2, and despite positive economic data Japan’s vice finance minister said that the nation was still in a mild deflation condition.

The Bank of England also declined to alter policy, voting to leave interest rates at 4.5 percent for the sixth month in a row. This, combined with the announcement that the Halifax house price survey in January showed its first decline since May 2005, sent sterling down 0.1 percent in relation to the euro, to £0.6869. The British currency also dropped 0.1 percent to £1.7402 against the US dollar. Weaker than expected trade data also did not help sterling as the global goods trade gap widened to £6.06 billion in December, when it had been expected to drop to £5.6 billion.

Elsewhere, the US dollar fell 0.1 percent in relation to the euro, to $1.1957.