- Yen regaining stability after rapid weakening
- Weakness driven by abnormal situation where oil prices topped $130 per barrel
- Pledges to maintain powerful monetary easing to aid the economic recovery
- Inflation surge stems mostly from rise in commodity prices
- Yen weakness only contributed a little to recent jump in inflation
A bit of denial there by Kuroda but then, it is part of his job. They have little tools to work with and they cannot at the time move away from their easy policy stance. The divergence in that aspect, with the surge in Treasury yields as markets price in a more hawkish Fed, was definitely a key reason for why the yen weakened across the board in March to April.
I shared some thoughts in this post last week here as yields come down for a third straight week - the longest stretch so far this year.
