The yen jumped on Monday as comments from Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Kazuo Ueda stoked hopes that Japan could soon herald a new era away from negative rates, while the dollar slid ahead of this week’s key U.S. inflation reading.

The greenback tumbled ahead of U.S. inflation data due on Wednesday, with traders on the lookout for whether the world’s largest economy is indeed on track for a “soft landing”, and whether the Federal Reserve has further to go in raising rates.

The yen jumped on Monday as comments from Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Kazuo Ueda stoked hopes that Japan could soon herald a new era away from negative rates, while the dollar slid ahead of this week’s key U.S. inflation reading.

The greenback tumbled ahead of U.S. inflation data due on Wednesday, with traders on the lookout for whether the world’s largest economy is indeed on track for a “soft landing”, and whether the Federal Reserve has further to go in raising rates.

The yen has come under pressure against the dollar as a result of growing interest rate differentials with the United States since the Federal Reserve began its aggressive rate-hike cycle last year while the BOJ remains a dovish outlier.

“It seems that Ueda’s comments were intended to stop the yen’s slide against the dollar,” Takehiko Masuzawa, trading head at Phillip Securities Japan, said. “His comments are working almost the same as government intervention.”