The Japanese yen witnessed a noticeable rise on Thursday against a basket of major and minor currencies, recording the highest level in four weeks, thanks to strong speculation about the Bank of Japan’s approaching exit from the negative interest rate policy. This speculation increased after comments from a member of the Policy Committee. Cash at the Bank of Japan, in the wake of the release of strong data on wages in Japan for the month of January

The dollar fell against the yen by 0.6% to (148.45), the lowest since last February 8, from the opening price of today’s trading at (149.35), in addition to the yen achieving on Wednesday an increase of 0.5% against the dollar, in the second daily gain in a row, due to the broad decline. The yield on ten-year US Treasury bonds
Jiji News reported that at least one of the Bank of Japan's nine board members may say removing negative rates would be appropriate at this month's policy meeting. After this testimony, a member of the Board of Directors of the Bank of Japan, Junko Nakagawa, said on Thursday that the Japanese economy is moving steadily towards achieving the central bank’s inflation target of 2% in the medium term in a sustainable manner.

As for some important Japanese economic data, the Japanese Ministry of Labor said on Thursday that total monthly cash income and a separate set of full-time wage figures rose by 2% annually in January. Exceeding economists' expectations for an increase of 1.3%, cash income recorded an increase of 0.8% in December.

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