(Bloomberg) -- The Bank of Japan is unlikely to be pressured into raising rates, Bridgewater Associates Greg Jensen said, even as traders are betting it will join peers with a monetary-policy surprise this week.

“I’m pretty confident they’ll move on their own timeline and that they won’t be bullied into this move,” the hedge fund firm’s co-chief investment officer said Thursday in an interview on Bloomberg TV, adding “they have plenty of firepower to prevent it.”

The BOJ, which has been keeping a lid on government bond yields since 2016, is scheduled to meet on Friday. While Japan’s policy makers are expected to continue with monetary easing, there’s growing speculation of a possible shock decision similar to that of Swiss National Bank, which on Thursday raised interest rates for the first times in 15 years.

Read more: Traders Bet Dovish Bank of Japan to Capitulate After Swiss Shock

The BOJ purchased a record amount of bonds in its daily fixed-rate operations earlier this week. Yields on its 10-year bonds climbed above an upper limit of 0.25% for the first time, forcing the central bank to ramp up its defense of its yield target.

“If you look at the conditions in Japan, they have the ammunition to do this,” Jensen said. “They can print money. Inflation in Japan is still low, so they have a different set of conditions.”

In a sign of Japanese market jitters, demand to hedge one-day price swings in the yen is the highest in more than two years. Unlike other countries, inflation remains relatively benign in Japan, given its recent history of disinflation.

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