BOJ governor Haruhiko Kuroda still on the wires

  • Doesn't see need to change 2% inflation target
  • Still wants to achieve target at earliest possible time
  • Says that negative rates also help to boost easing effects
  • Says China's economy likely won't slow down further given stimulus steps
  • Sees low chance of further global slowdown but is aware of the risk
  • Says Chinese and European economy are expected to recover in 2H 2019

There isn't much takeaways from Kuroda's comments today. The BOJ downgraded its economic outlook on exports and production but the rest of the remarks by Kuroda remains similar, which is intentional as he doesn't want markets to start factoring further easing by the BOJ at this point in time.

USD/JPY remains rather unchanged at 111.70 currently, basically unmoved from Kuroda's comments in the past half-hour.