Yen fell as BOJ maintained easy monetary policy

Japanese yen fell on Tuesday after the Bank of Japan maintained its ultra-accommodative policy at the end of the two-day monetary policy meeting, in line with market expectations.

According to Reuters, the yen fell by about 0.3% following the Bank of Japan’s decision to keep the short-term interest rate at -0.1% and the ten-year bond yield at about zero percent, but the Japanese currency later recovered some of its losses.

The most recent increase recorded by the yen during the day was 0.1% to 147.92 per dollar.

In a quarterly report on expectations, the Bank of Japan lowered its forecast for core consumer price inflation for the fiscal year starting in April to 2.4% from 2.8% it forecast in October. It revised its forecast for fiscal year 2025 slightly to 1.8% from 1.7%.

The yen fell against the euro by 0.08% to 161.32 yen. The British pound rose 0.2% to 188.28 yen, a level not far from the high of 188.91 yen it recorded on Friday, its strongest level since August 2015.

The yuan in external transactions rose 0.3% to 7.1700 to the dollar. The Australian dollar rose more than 0.5% to $0.6607.

As for cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin rose 0.6% to $40,048 after falling below the $40,000 level in the previous session for the first time since the launch of 11 spot Bitcoin funds traded on the stock exchange on January 11.