Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Wednesday that the Japanese economy was picking up as a trend despite showing some signs of weakness, as reported by Reuters.

Additional takeaways

"Japan's economy likely to improve as the impact of pandemic, supply constraints ease."

"Japan's consumer inflation hovering around 0.5%, likely to clearly accelerate for the time being."

"There is very high uncertainty on Ukraine developments, impact on commodity prices."

"Recent rise in inflation driven by higher import costs weigh on Japan's economy."

"BOJ will underpin economy's recover from pandemic by patiently sustaining current powerful monetary easing."

Market reaction

USD/JPY extended its rally after these comments and was last seen trading at its highest level since May 2002 above 126.00.