Dollar is near its highest level in 7 months against Yen

The dollar hovered near its highest level in seven months against the yen, after the statements of the heads of the US and Japanese central banks confirmed the significant difference in the path of monetary policy for each of them, during a conference hosted by the European Central Bank last night, while the Swedish krona recorded a record low level after the Swedish central bank raised interest rates. Moderately.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said on a conference panel, in the presence of European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda and Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey, that two more rate hikes were likely this year, and he did not rule out the possibility of a July hike.

In contrast, Ueda reiterated that “there is still a way to go” from achieving a sustainable rate of inflation of 2 percent accompanied by sufficient wage growth, the two conditions set by the Bank of Japan to consider ending its ultra-loose monetary policy.

The dollar has jumped 11.6 percent since late March, hitting 144.71 yen on Wednesday, for the first time since November 10, prompting verbal warnings from Japanese government officials this week that the move may be too fast.

The Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Japan intervened in the currency market last fall when the dollar rose above 145 yen.

The dollar fell 0.1 percent at 144.24 yen.

There was little change in the dollar index, which measures the performance of the US currency against six other major currencies, including the yen, the euro and the pound, to record 102.94.

The Swedish krona briefly hit a record low, bringing the euro to 11.829 kronor, after the Swedish central bank raised key interest rates and increased the pace of bond selling, or quantitative tightening. The krona rose at a slight rate, to record 11.77 crowns for the euro.

The euro fell slightly at $1.0908 after mixed inflation data from German states and Spain ahead of euro zone data on Friday.

The Australian dollar rose in the latest transaction 0.4 percent to $ 0.6625 after stronger-than-expected retail sales data, to recover some recovery after falling 1.27 percent on Wednesday.