GBP/JPY faces pressure near 181.00 as UK recession fears deepen

GBP/JPY retreats from 181.00 as recession fears in the UK economy deepen.
BoE policymakers may get puzzled between recession and persistent inflation fears.
Japan’s inflation remains above 2% for the 20^th month in a row.

Sagar Dua FXStreet

The GBP/JPY pair fell back while attempting to climb above 181.00 after the United Kingdom Office for National Statistics (ONS), in its latest estimates, reported a contraction in the Q3 Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The ONS projected a stagnant performance in the preliminary estimates and now a surprise contraction has deepened fears of a technical recession in the UK economy.

In the latest Summary of Projections (SOP), the Bank of England (BoE) forecasted a stagnant growth for the last quarter of 2024. Any unfavourable number would be considered as a technical recession. The Bank of England (BoE) policymakers are in dilemma whether to endorse rate cuts to avoid a technical recession or stay focused with restrictive policy stance to ensure return of inflation to 2%.

Meanwhile, stronger-than-projected Retail Sales data for November has delivered a reason to BoE policymakers to lean towards maintaining interest rates elevated.

The ONS reported that the consumer spending momentum grew at a stronger pace of 1.3% against estimates of 0.4%. In October, Retail Sales were stagnant. Annual Retail Sales surprisingly rose by 0.1% while investors forecasted a contraction by 1.3% due to heavy demand at non-food retail stores amid heavy discount due to Black Friday event. This has restored persistent inflation fears.

On the Tokyo front, Bank of Japan’s (BoJ) monetary policy minutes indicated that members agreed to sustain interest rates negative till the achievement of 2% inflation through wage growth gets clear. Apart from that, National Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for November, released in early Friday, decelerated to 2.8% against the former reading of 3.3%. Price pressures in the Japanese economy have remained above 2% for 20 straight months.

GBP/JPY

Overview
Today last price	180.54
Today Daily Change	0.11
Today Daily Change %	0.06
Today daily open	180.43

Trends
Daily SMA20	183.89
Daily SMA50	184.14
Daily SMA100	183.76
Daily SMA200	178.57

Levels
Previous Daily High	181.52
Previous Daily Low	179.79
Previous Weekly High	184.33
Previous Weekly Low	178.35
Previous Monthly High	188.67
Previous Monthly Low	182.75
Daily Fibonacci 38.2%	180.45
Daily Fibonacci 61.8%	180.86
Daily Pivot Point S1	179.64
Daily Pivot Point S2	178.84
Daily Pivot Point S3	177.9
Daily Pivot Point R1	181.37
Daily Pivot Point R2	182.31
Daily Pivot Point R3	183.1

Author

Sagar Dua

FXStreet

Sagar Dua is associated with the financial markets from his college days. Along with pursuing post-graduation in Commerce in 2014, he started his markets training with chart analysis.

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