BoJ Meeting Review

The Bank of Japan (BoJ) left its interest rates unchanged at 0.50%, helping a Yen sold-off (especially against the USD), and again keeping a weak tone across the board.

Tony Juste, FX Advisor at FXstreet.com, said that "technically speaking this comes as a result of the trendline magnet and I would not consider it anything exceptional." You can view the whole article at The Advisor Blog: Bank of Japan keeps it low.

Check the effect that the result of the meeting is having over the pairs in our Rates and Charts Section or compare the movements of the different banks in our World Interest Rates Table. Review the results of the poll in our Forex Forum: BoJ Policy Meeting (March 20, 2007).

• Read the Announcement of the Monetary Policy Meeting Decisions (unchanged) at Bank of Japan
• Minutes of previous Monetary Policy Meetings

In-Depth Analysis

• Weekly Analysis - Interest rate decisions from BOJ and Fed ahead by Finotec Group Inc.
• Forex Daily Analysis - The BOJ decided to leave rates on hold at 0.5% by ForexYard
• Sunrise Market Commentary: Currencies - Rates on hold in Japan, rate hike in Australia? by KBC Bank
• Wakeup Call on Forex Markets - BoJ Keeps Rates at 0.50 pct. as Expected by Saxo Bank
• Overnight Briefing: Far East Timezone - BOJ keeps policy unchanged by Jyske Bank

Related News

• Bank of Japan keeps overnight call rate target unchanged (AFX News)
• Yen falls further after BoJ meeting (AFX News)
• Bank of Japan governor Fukui says to closely monitor global markets (AFX News)
• Bank of Japan says economy expanding moderately (AFX News)

Analysts' comments

• Tetsufumi Yamakawa, chief economist at Goldman Sachs:
  "The BoJ needs to ascertain first if growth in consumer spending can be sustained with a healthy rise in wages, and if consumer prices can rise steadily before it explores chances for another rate hike." - AFX News
• Junichi Makino, senior economist at Daiwa Institute of Research:
  "The inability of Japanese companies to lift workers' wages despite strong profits may restrain growth in consumer spending and consequently cause the economy to slip into a soft patch in the near term." - AFX News
• Lee More, VP at ForexYard:
  "Yesterday, mixed trading, the dollar was higher against the JPY and the CHF, little changed against the EUR but lower against most high yielding currencies that benefited from the renewed interest in carry trades. The BOJ decided to leave rates on hold at 0.5% causing the JPY to decrease in value." - ForexYard
• Rikke Ledager, analyst at Jyske Bank:
  "As expected Bank of Japan decided to hold the benchmark rate steady at 0.50% this morning. This decision barely made the JPY move at all. In the accompanying monthly report BoJ maintained its outlook with the economy expanding moderately. Right now it seems unlikely that the BoJ move the rate in the near future. The consumer prices is still moving around zero in the near term but in the long run CPI will remain in an upward trend according to BoJ." - Jyske Bank