(Bloomberg) -- Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda reaffirmed that the economy continues to recover gradually even with pockets of weakness in consumption, sending the yen marginally lower as traders parse his language for clues on the timing of a widely anticipated rate hike.

“Although there’s weakness in some household spending data, my view is that the gradual recovery continues,” Ueda said Tuesday in response to a question in parliament.

The governor said that while there are signs of weakness in personal consumption, capital investment by businesses “is increasing steadily.”

The yen weakened to an intraday low as traders jumped on the spending remark that in isolation seemed to diminish the likelihood of an interest rate hike at the meeting that concludes on March 19. 

The move illustrated the high degree of sensitivity in markets as participants try to determine whether the central bank will conduct its first interest rate hike since 2007 next week or wait until April.

The currency fell as much as 0.3% against the dollar to 147.44 following Ueda’s comments, while the Nikkei index pared its drop. Bond trading was paused for the daily lunch break.

Ueda says he wants to review the latest data in determining whether the bank’s sustainable inflation goal has been met, and he noted that “more data will come in this week,” an apparent reference to results from annual wage talks expected to culminate with the largest umbrella group for unions announcing an agreement on Friday.

Ueda pledged to consider changes to various policy settings if the board agrees that the bank 2% stable inflation target has come within sight.

“We will consider adjusting the negative rate policy, the yield curve control and other various easing measures if the goal is within sight,” Ueda said during a second appearance in parliament Tuesday. “Actual steps and content will depend on economic and price conditions at that time.”

(Adds comments Ueda made at a second appearance in parliament)

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