The Japanese yen (JPY) showed weakness against the US dollar (USD) during Friday’s Asian session. USD/JPY continues to gain near its weekly high of 155.20 posted on Thursday. The pair is under pressure as the US dollar continues to outperform due to signals from the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) minutes from its January policy meeting that officials see no rush to cut interest rates and inflation remains consistently above the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) target of 2%.

At the time of writing, the US Dollar Index (DXY), which measures the dollar’s value against six major currencies, is holding firmly near the fresh three-week high of 98.00 posted on Thursday.

At Friday’s session, the main factors influencing the US dollar will be preliminary gross domestic product (GDP) data for the fourth quarter and the S&P Global Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for February, which will be published during the North American session.

Economists expect US GDP to grow at an annual rate of 3% from the previous reading of 4.4%. The S&P Global Composite PMI is estimated to have grown at a faster pace, supported by forceful business activity in both the manufacturing and services sectors.

Although investors have strengthened the U.S. dollar against the Japanese yen, its exchange rate is broadly stable even as Japan’s domestic consumer price index (CPI) rose moderately in January.

Earlier data showed that overall CPI inflation was growing at an annual rate of 1.5%, slower than 2.1% in December. The domestic CPI for Fresh Food, for example, fell as expected to 2% from the previous reading of 2.4%. The weakening of inflationary pressure in Japan may affect expectations of interest rate increases by the Bank of Japan (BoJ) in the near future.