At the end of the day, policymakers can and will spin the narrative to however they see fit with their decision. And with the BOJ these days, the leaked reports leading up to their meeting seem to be the more important part of the narrative.
The latest inflation numbers from Japan’s capital here today might just keep things in play at the balance. But any such thinking runs in contradiction with the message from BOJ governor Ueda itself here last week.
That being said, he was careful to have not explicitly ruled out a January move. However, he did cast plenty of doubt on that and tried to suggest that they’d be more comfortable in waiting until March perhaps.
The Japanese yen is slightly higher today after the data but again, we’re still caught in holiday-thin trading. So, I wouldn’t look too much into that. If traders have to phase out the odds for a BOJ rate hike next month, there will some scaling back to do for the yen. That considering traders are pricing the decision to be nearly a coin flip for now.