The yen will rally to 100 per dollar in the first half of next year because the Bank of Japan won't be able to expand monetary easing by enough to repeat the weakening effect it had this year, a former official of the central bank said.
The so-called Kuroda Shock in April set off the yen's biggest drop since October 2008 and pushed 10-year bond yields to a record low after BOJ Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda pledged to double the monetary base to achieve a 2 percent inflation target. The bank won't be able to spring a similar surprise on the market next year, said Tohru Sasaki, who worked at the BOJ from 1992 to 2003 and is now JPMorgan's Tokyo-based head of Japan rates and currency research.
"Next time the BOJ can't beat market expectations," he said in an interview Thursday. "It's already done so much."