At the monetary policy meeting held on Thursday, the Bank of Japan decided to maintain its current financial policy, keeping the policy rate (unsecured overnight call rate) at around 0.25%.
Since the decision at the end of July to raise the policy rate to 0.25%, the Bank of Japan has not made additional rate hikes in three consecutive meetings. Following the monetary policy statement, the yen weakened against the dollar, reaching a critical level of 155. According to Bloomberg reports, this exchange rate level is closely monitored by strategic analysts, who believe that if the yen falls below this level, it may trigger verbal intervention from Japanese authorities and increase pressure on the Bank of Japan to raise interest rates.
Yen observers will focus on whether Bank of Japan Governor Ueda Kazuo will provide any hints about the next rate hike during the press conference later on Thursday. If the yen continues to weaken, the central bank may face greater pressure to raise rates.
The Federal Reserve announced this morning a rate cut of 25 basis points, lowering the federal funds rate target range to 4.25% to 4.5%, but hinted at slowing the pace of rate cuts. This news severely impacted the cryptocurrency market, with Bitcoin (BTC) prices falling over 5%, briefly dropping below the $99,000 level. After the Bank of Japan decided to keep interest rates unchanged, Bitcoin slightly rebounded to nearly $101,000.
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