Ella 
After the Bank of Japan (BoJ) announced its interest rate decision, EUR/JPY tried to recover the previous day’s losses. As widely expected, the Bank of Japan kept interest rates current at -0.1%. Spot prices were trading higher around 157.60 during Friday’s Asian session.
When the Japanese yen (JPY) came under renewed selling pressure earlier in the day, Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki made a typical verbal intervention. Suzuki said he had no comment on recent foreign exchange (FX) levels and trends.
Omi Suzuki Shunichi also pointed out that the foreign exchange intervention carried out last year had the expected impact, and the central bank is paying close attention to foreign exchange fluctuations with a high sense of urgency.
In addition, the policymaker also emphasized that they have not ruled out any options to deal with excessive foreign exchange shocks and are in close communication with overseas monetary authorities.
Japan’s national CPI rose to 3.2% in August, slightly lower than the previous value of 3.3%. The national CPI (excluding fresh food) is still at 3.1%, expected to be 3.0%.
As for the European Central Bank, the central bank’s chief economist said in Asia on Friday that “inflation rates above 2% are costly to the economy.” Lane stressed that the central bank aimed to achieve its medium-term inflation target and avoided speculation about the ECB’s future policy decisions. The policymaker also pointed out that the most effective way to tighten monetary policy is to adjust interest rates.
Investors may also look to the Eurozone’s flash HCOB PMI for September in search of more valuable insights into the bloc’s economic activity.
