The Yen is restoring the balance. Overview for 31.03.2022

USDJPY is falling after updating its 7-year highs.

The Japanese yen is recovering against the USD. The current quote for the instrument is 121.99.

The Yen suffered serious stress in March and has lost 6% against the “greenback” since the beginning of 2022. Amid global risk aversion, market players chose the USD but right now the Yen is slowly restoring. 

Today’s data showed that the Industrial Production in Japan in February was worse than expected: +0.1% m/m against +0/5% m/m. On YoY, the indicator added 0.2% against the expected decline of 2.3% m/m.

Curious things are happening in the Japanese construction industry. For example, the Housing Starts report showed +6.3% y/y against the expected reading of +1.1% y/y (0.872M against 0.820M). At the same time, the Construction Orders dropped 2.3% y/y against the expected growth of 1.5% y/y. It seems like new houses were “frozen” right after the start so that everyone could wait and see what would happen with prices. 

It appears that there is domestic demand and interest in construction but the global uncertainty spoils everything. 

According to Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, the Yen decline in March can have a negative impact and consequences on the country’s economy. He said that the government was keeping a close eye on what was happening in the currency market and thought the Yen stability was very important.