• AUD/JPY has jumped toward 93.00 as RBA minutes have cleared that more rate hikes are warranted.
• The RBA members also considered the option of a 50 bps OCR hike increase.
• BoJ Kuroda sees an increase in wages due to labor demand and inflation.

The AUD/JPY pair has climbed to near 93.00 in the Tokyo session after observing a hawkish stance from the minutes released by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). The message from the RBA minutes is clear that more interest rates are warranted as strong consumer demand is not allowing Australian inflation to soften from its peak.

According to the RBA minutes, members also considered the option of 50 basis points (bps) interest rate hike considering the persistence in inflation. The RBA members also highlighted that the Unemployment Rate is the lowest in the past 50 years and job vacancies are extremely high, which is delighting households for flushing surplus funds into the economy.

Apart from that, the Australian economy was benefiting from higher terms of trade and would benefit more than a number of other countries from China’s reopening. The rollback of pandemic controls by the Chinese administration has opened more trade for the Australian economy.

For further guidance, RBA Governor Philip Lowe sees the cash rate rising to 3.75% over time, headline inflation is expected to decline to 4.75% by the end of 2023 and return to around 3% by mid-2025.

Earlier, S&P Global reported upbeat preliminary Australian PMI (Feb) data. The Manufacturing PMI landed at 50.1, higher than the consensus of 49.9 and the former release of 50.0. The Services PMI scaled firmly to 49.2 versus the estimates of 48.4 and the prior release of 48.6.

On the Japanese Yen front, Bank of Japan (BoJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda stated “Wages are likely to rise due to labor demand and inflation. The Japanese Yen has not reacted much to the mixed preliminary Jibun Bank PMI (Feb) data. The Services PMI has landed at 53.6, outperforming the estimates of 51.5 and the prior release of 51.1. While the Manufacturing PMI has dropped to 47.4 from the expectations and the prior figure of 48.9.