The dollar gained as much as 146.58 yen and was last at 146.14 yen, up 0.85 per cent on the day

The Japanese yen weakened against the dollar on Monday for a second successive day, giving back most of a rally last week on expectations of less dovish monetary policy, and as investors awaited U.S. inflation data and three major central bank meetings.

The Japanese currency soared on Thursday after Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda, who on the same day met with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, said the central bank had a number of options on which interest rates to target once it pulls short-term borrowing costs out of negative territory.

Bloomberg, however, reported on Monday that Bank of Japan officials have not yet enough evidence that wage growth is enough to justify ending its ultra-loose monetary policy this month.

This is the right reaction. Ueda’s words last week were not actually any sort of concrete statement that they were going to end that negative interest rate, said Helen Given, FX trader, at Monex USA in Washington.

The dollar gained as much as 146.58 yen and was last at 146.14 yen, up 0.85 per cent on the day. The yen has given up nearly all of its rally on Thursday, when it touched 141.6 yen against the dollar.

The dollar added 0.13 per cent against a basket of currencies to 104.08.

The euro was unchanged on the day at $1.0762, near Friday’s 24-day low of $1.0724. Sterling added 0.06 per cent to $1.2555, after reaching a 15-day low of $1.2504 on Friday.

Traders will watch U.S. CPI data on Tuesday for hints on the possible path of Fed policy. It is expected to show that headline inflation was unchanged in November, for an annual rise of 3.1 per cent, down from 3.2 per cent in October.