The Yen continues getting more expensive. Overview for 16.02.2018

USDJPY reached new lows on Friday; the Japanese currency is supported by internal news and the weak USD.

On Friday morning, the Japanese Yen continues rising, thus making the Bank of Japan and local exporters nervous. USDJPY has reached the lowest levels since November 9^th 2016 and grown by 5.6% against the USD since the beginning of the year. Mostly, this growth occurred in February. The current quote for the instrument is 105.72.

This morning, the Nikkei agency informed about appointment of Haruhiko Kuroda to the position of the BoE’s Governor for the second term. This topic, which is considered quite questionable, was discussed earlier, but investors took this piece of news as a signal that the regulator’s current monetary policy, including the QE program, would remain the same.

In the comments that followed, Mr. Kuroda himself told that the time to close the program hadn’t come yet and the regulator wasn’t going to do it beforehand, because it might do more harm than good to the country’s economy. One should admit that the Governor was right: in case of such decisions, the timing should be perfect in order to prevent wildcatters from making the market even more volatile.

According to Kuroda’s estimations, the Japanese economy is growing steadily, but price movement inside it is still slower than inside other global economies. The inflation target remains at 2%; the QE program continues.

RoboForex Analytical Department