GBP/JPY hovers around 161.00 ahead of BOE Governor’s speech and Japan’s Unemployment Rate

• GBP/JPY is oscillating in a range of 160.80-161.28 as investors await BOE Governor’s speech.
• Higher UK’s CPI print at 6.2% has raised odds of a fourth interest rate hike by the BOE consecutively.
• Japan’s Unemployment Rate is likely to remain unchanged at 2.8%.

The GBP/JPY pair is auctioning in a range of 160.80-161.28 as investors are waiting for the speech from the Bank of England (BOE) Governor Andrew Bailey and the Unemployment Rate from Tokyo’s docket.

Speech from BOE Chair Andrew Bailey will remain in focus as investors will get insights from the likely monetary policy action by the BOE. Last week, the UK’s Office for National Statistics reported the yearly Consumer Price Index (CPI) at 6.2%, which was higher than the market consensus of 5.9% and the previous print of 5.5%. This has raised the odds of an interest rate hike by the BOE in its upcoming monetary policy. It is worth noting that the BOE has raised their interest rates three times in a row by 25 basis points (bps) each time and a more-than-expected higher CPI figure is claiming for another interest rate hike by the BOE to clean the inflation mess.

Apart from that the Russia-Ukraine war has completed its one month and is not displaying any kind of settlement gestures. This may keep pushing the UK’s inflation amid rising oil and energy prices.

Meanwhile, the Japanese yen has been performing vulnerable in the past few trading sessions against the pound amid its higher dependency on oil imports and stabled interest rates. Going forward, the market participants will keep an eye on the Japanese Unemployment Rate, which is likely to remain in line with the previous print at 2.8%.