As the market expected, the members of the Bank of Japan monetary policy committee voted unanimously to leave interest rates unchanged at 0.50 percent.
Like many of the other central banks around the world, they have buckled down and acknowledged that their economy could be negatively impacted by slower global growth. According to Bank of Japan Governor Fukui, the signs of a US slowdown are stronger. In the BoJ monthly report, the central bank expects exports to rise at a slowing pace and production in the short term to be flat. Next week, we only have a few pieces of Japanese economic data due for release: leading indicators and the merchandise trade balance. The Bank of Japan will also be releasing the minutes from their January monetary policy meeting. Since they left interest rates unchanged back then as well, the report should have no impact on the Japanese Yen.
