• GBP/JPY comes under some renewed selling pressure amid broad-based JPY strength.
• Hawkish BoJ expectations, along with the cautious market mood, underpin the JPY.
• Traders now look to the UK CPI for short-term impetus ahead of the BoE and the BoJ. 

The GBP/JPY cross struggles to capitalize on a two-day-old recovery from the vicinity of a one-month low retested earlier this week and meets with a fresh supply during the Asian session on Wednesday. Spot prices drop back closer to the 186.00 mark in the last hour amid the emergence of fresh buying around the Japanese Yen (JPY), though the downside seems limited ahead of the release of the UK consumer inflation figures.

The headline UK Consumer Price Index (CPI) is expected to rise 0.3% in August following a 0.2% fall in the previous month and the yearly rate is seen holding steady at 2.2%. Meanwhile, the core CPI – excluding the volatile components of food, energy, alcohol and tobacco – is anticipated to climb to the 3.5% YoY rate from 3.3 in July. Against the backdrop of a slowdown in the UK wage growth and a flat GDP print for the second straight month in July, a softer CPI print will lift bets for more interest rate cuts by the Bank of England (BoE) and undermine the British Pound (GBP).