The negative shift in risk sentiment, which caused the GBP/JPY currency pair to lose all of its daily gains and fall into negative territory near 161.51, kept the pair from building bullish momentum.

Several news sources say that UK government ministers will meet with energy companies on Thursday to talk about the Treasury’s plan to raise the 25% tax on the profits of oil and gas producers in the North Sea.

In response to this report, the market remains cautious, so the FTSE 100 Index in the UK is trading flat.

The trend of the GBP/JPY is going down due to some upcoming news.

First, the National Statistics will release information about the gross domestic product (GDP), which economists say could drop by 1.3% in July compared to the 0.5% drop in June.

The GDP measures the value of all goods and services in the UK. Generally, a trend going up is good for the GBP, and a downward direction is bearish.

Then, economists think that the June record for industrial and manufacturing production will show -1.3% and -1.8%, respectively.

On the other hand, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) plans to say that it will keep its current monetary policy, which includes negative interest rates. Once that information is widely known, traders may start to step on the yen’s toes.

Conclusion

The market’s nervousness helps the safe-haven Japanese yen, which also helps to limit the GBP/JPY pair increase.