What's next for Japan and the Yen?

Wells Fargo Research Team Wells Fargo

Summary

Japan's economy has been reasonably resilient so far in 2022. Growth has been moderate, although confidence surveys suggest mixed prospects for different economic sectors, consistent with only moderate growth ahead.
We also expect relatively contained inflation going forward as well. While prices are elevated compared to recent history, inflation remains low by international standards.
As for the currency, historically there have been two important drivers for movements in the yen: the currency's safe haven characteristcs and Japan's yield differentials with the rest of the world. In more recent times the yen's safe haven properties seem to have diminished to some extent, whereas yield differentials have remained a better indicator of potential trends in the yen.
Given that yield spreads appear to be the more influential driver, trends in global monetary policy, especially those of the Federal Reserve, should be influential for the yen. The increasing divergence in monetary policy between a hawkish Federal Reserve and dovish Bank of Japan means we believe the yen still has room to weaken against the U.S. dollar in the medium term, even if the Ministry of Finance intervenes in FX markets again to support the currency.
We believe that as yields continue to diverge, the yen can weaken toward a USD/JPY exchange rate of JPY149.00 by Q1-2023, before recovering somewhat as next year progresses.

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Wells Fargo Research Team

Wells Fargo

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