With inflation in Japan showing no signs of approaching the Bank of Japan (BoJ) 2% target, the central bank will remain a policy laggard, weighing on the yen, economists at CIBC Capital Markets report.

Contained inflation below target precludes BoJ policy tightening

“The publication of the BoJ statement of monetary opinions from the January meeting underlines that several BoJ officials want to push back against market speculation that it's prepared to shift towards policy normalization later this year.”

“As BoJ Governor Kuroda continues to detail that Japan remains very far from reaching the 2.0% CPI target, it seems that the bank remains comfortable with a weakening JPY bias.”