GBP-JPY Conversion Rate Seesawed by Prior Optimism and Subsequent Disappointment over BoE Announcement
A weekly high of 184.0650 has been hit today in the Pound Sterling to Japanese Yen exchange rate, although recent Sterling domestic data has not exactly been conducive to such historically high rates. Specifically, the Bank of England (BoE) Interest Rate Decision and their appropriate minutes have come out today; as expected, no change from 0.50 % took place, but the BoE’s overly dovish economic outlook for the UK damaged the British Pound’s faring considerably, seeing declines against a vast majority of its rivals in the wake of the decision.
Japan, meanwhile, has made little positive progress thanks to Machine Tool Orders for August falling by -3.5% this morning instead of rising by the same amount. In addition, Japans’ future performance has been downgraded in estimated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), who in its World Economic Outlook cut this years and 2016’s growth figures from 0.8% to 0.6% and 1.2% to 1% respectively.
GBP-JPY Exchange Rate Future to be Decided by Fed Intervention and Pessimistic UK Trade Predictions
For the remainder of the week, Pound Sterling to Japanese Yen conversion rate movement is expected to occur from the announcement of the US Fed Minutes from their September 16th-17th Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) Meeting later today, the set of UK Trade Balance data released tomorrow morning, along with tomorrow’s annual Japanese September Machine Orders figures.
Like the Pound, the US Dollar is regarded as a safe-haven currency along with the Yen, therefore as the largest of the three economies, US developments are expected to have clearly discernible impacts on the GBP-JPY pairing. As with any FOMC minutes release, those out this evening will provide speculators with a means of gauging the FOMC’s previous stance on whether or not to raise the US interest rate in the remainder of this year or the next, although recent developments have somewhat lessened the effect this publication may have.
Specifically, these developments have been Fed policymakers overtly stating their intent on a future interest rate decision soon after last month’s decision was made and the catastrophic shortfall in the Change in Non-Farm Payrolls figure for September last week, which caused some economists to declare that an interest rate hike is off the table until next year.
Unfortunately for Sterling, tomorrow’s Trade Balance figures have been forecast negatively, although no prediction has currently been made for Japan’s Machine Tools data.
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