Investing.com - The dollar fell against the yen on Wednesday after the Bank of Japan held off on expanding its monetary easing scheme and instead expanded a loan scheme aimed at boosting lending.
USD/JPY dropped 1.04% to 117.58 from a one-week high of 118.85 late Tuesday.
The yen had been pressured lower ahead of the BoJ monetary policy announcement as investors anticipated more stimulus.
The BOJ maintained the size of its stimulus program and reiterated its pledge to increase base money at an annual pace of ¥80 trillion through buying government bonds and risk assets.
The central bank also cut its core inflation forecast 1% from 1.7% three months ago.
EUR/JPY was down 0.98% to 135.89 from highs of 137.63 on Tuesday.
The euro was little changed against the dollar, with EUR/USD at 1.1563, not far from Friday’s 11-year trough of 1.1459 as investors waited to see if the European Central Bank would embark on an outright quantitative easing program on Thursday.
The single currency has been pressured lower by mounting expectations that the ECB will launch a government bond-buying program, in a bid to stave off the threat of deflation in the euro area.
Uncertainty over the outcome of Greek elections, due to be held on Sunday, with anti-bailout party Syriza leading in the polls also weighed.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.30% to 93.07.