GBP/JPY retreats from five-month high near 197.00 after BoJ's policy decision

• GBP/JPY faces pressure after refreshing five-month high near 196.85 after the BoJ held interest rates unchanged at 0.5%.
• The BoJ expects the underlying inflation to return to its target in the second-half of fiscal 2025-2027 period.
• Investors expect the BoE to leave interest rates unchanged on Thursday.

The GBP/JPY pair falls back to near 196.15 during late Asian trading hours on Tuesday after posting a fresh five-month high around 196.85 earlier in the day. The pair faces selling pressure as the Japanese Yen (JPY) attracts bids after the Bank of Japan (BoJ) announced the monetary policy, in which it left interest rates steady at 0.5% for the third consecutive meeting.

The BoJ was expected to hold borrowing rates at their current levels as Governor Kazuo Ueda had already guided that policymakers would tighten financial conditions when they get convinced that the underlying inflation will move around the central bank's target of 2%.

Japanese central bank has predicted that the underlying inflation will come to its target in the 2nd half of fiscal 2025 to 2027 period. On global risks, the BoJ has stated that they will closely monitor the impact of trade war on financial, forex markets, domestic growth, and inflation.

Meanwhile, the Pound Sterling trades cautiously ahead of the United Kingdom (UK) Consumer Price Index (CPI) data on Wednesday and the Bank of England's (BoE) monetary policy announcement on Thursday. Economists expect the UK inflation to have grown moderately, a scenario that will encourage traders to raise bets supporting the BoE to deliver more interest rate cuts this year.

On Thursday, the BoE is expected to leave interest rates steady at 4.25% as officials guided a "gradual and cautious" monetary easing approach in the May's policy meeting, following an interest rate reduction by 25 basis points (bps).