Ella 
GBP/JPY pared intraday losses after the Bank of Japan (BoJ) announced its interest rate decision on Wednesday. The GBP/JPY cross in Asia was trading around 196.20, with the Japanese yen (JPY) still falling despite the decision by Bank of Japan board members to raise the short-term interest rate target by 15 basis points from the 0%-0.1% range to 0.15%-0.25%.
In addition, the Bank of Japan also decided to reduce its monthly purchases of Japanese government bonds from 6 trillion yen to 3 trillion yen ($19.07 billion) starting in the first quarter of 2026. The Bank of Japan’s press conference will provide more signals on Japan’s policy path.
Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said on Tuesday that the Bank of Japan and the government would work closely together. Lin Fangzheng emphasized that the Bank of Japan will work closely with the government to implement appropriate monetary policies to achieve the inflation target.
In terms of sterling, traders continue to price in a possible interest rate cut by the Bank of England (BOE) on Thursday, which puts downward pressure on sterling (GBP) and limits the upside of the GBP/JPY cross. Reuters reported that the chance of the Bank of England cutting borrowing costs by 25 basis points to 5.0% is close to 58%.
In addition, the Federal Reserve is expected to keep interest rates unchanged at its July interest rate meeting, and the decision will be made on Wednesday. However, growing expectations for a rate cut in September have put pressure on the dollar and provided support for other risk currencies such as sterling.
