• GBP/JPY marches to a fresh 16-year high above 204.00.
• Guppy taps highest bids since August of 2008.
• UK heads into Parliamentary elections later this week.

GBP/JPY tipped into yet another 16-year high on Monday, peaking at 204.75 as the Yen continues to deteriorate across the board. Investors are snubbing a continuous stream of intervention rhetoric from the Bank of Japan (BoJ) and Japan’s Ministry of Finance (MoF). With the BoJ stubbornly entrenched in a hyper-easy monetary policy stance, the Yen is set to continue declining as the interest rate differential between the Yen and other major currencies shows no signs of narrowing.

Economic data remains thin for both the Yen and the Pound Sterling this week, leaving GBP traders to focus on the UK’s upcoming Parliamentary elections slated for Thursday. Japan’s Tankan Large Manufacturing Index rose to 13.0 in Q2, up from the previous quarter’s 11.0.

Q1 UK Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rose to 0.7% QoQ last Friday, clipping above the forecast hold at 0.6%, bolstering the Pound Sterling. Japanese Tokyo Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation also increased to 2.3% YoY through June compared to the previous 2.2%, but the figure wasn’t enough to spark any signs of hawkishness from the BoJ.