USD/JPY hits five-year high

Dollar climbed up to January 2017 highs against yen amid a lack of Japanese and US data today and ahead of the important Fed's March 15-16 policy meeting.

As of 06:26 GMT, USD/JPY rose 0.43% to 117.79, with a five-year high at 117.88, after closing at 117.27 last week.

The Fed is expected to hike rates by 25 basis points from the record lows of below 0.25%, with some estimates pointing to a 50 basis points hike.

The Fed has already ended the bonds purchases program that was launched in March 2020 to counter the Covid 19 crisis.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell testified recently ahead of Congress, asserting that the Fed will move in the path of hiking rates cautiously. 

Powell said the Ukrainian crisis' impact on the US economy is still not clear, but he still supports a March rate hike to arrest increasing inflation rates.

Otherwise, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned from another year of "highly uncomfortable inflation" due to the Ukrainian war, after data showed consumer prices rose 7.9% in February.