Forexpros – The U.S. dollar slipped against the yen on Tuesday, to trade close to a one-month low after the Bank of Japan refrained from implementing further easing measures and left its benchmark interest rate unchanged.

USD/JPY hit 81.26 during early European trade, the daily low; the pair subsequently consolidated at 81.24, shedding 0.31%.

The pair was likely to find support at 80.83, the low of March 1 and resistance at 81.85, the day’s high.

The BoJ held its benchmark interest rate close to zero earlier and left its JPY30 trillion yen asset-purchase fund unchanged, in a widely expected move.

The central bank said that no board member proposed additional easing at the two-day meeting concluded on Tuesday, although investors expect fresh measures to be announced at the bank’s next policy meeting on April 27.

Demand for the yen was also supported by concerns over the global growth outlook after official data showed that China posted a trade surplus of USD5.35 billion last month, as imports grew just 5.3% after increasing by 39.6% in February.

Meanwhile, weaker-than-expected nonfarm employment data from the U.S. on Friday revived expectations that the Federal Reserve may conduct a fresh round of quantitative easing and added to uncertainty over the global economic recovery.

Government data showed that the U.S. economy added just 120,000 jobs in March, the lowest number since December and well below expectations for a 203,000 increase.

At a conference earlier in the day, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said the U.S. economy “is still far from having fully recovered” from the financial crisis.

The yen was higher against the euro with EUR/JPY declining 0.41%, to hit 106.37.

Later in the day, the euro zone was to publish data on investor confidence while France was to release official data on industrial production.

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