The Japanese yen showed a record fast growth against the major currencies this week as the stock markets declined worldwide and investors favored the low-risk assets in Japan, spurring the currency conversion process.
Japanese currencies grew on the speculation that the weak economic indicators in U.S. and the crisis of the financial institutions may cause a global recession. Both Australian and New Zealand dollars (famous for their carry trade value) touched 2-year minimum levels this week.
Despite the extremely low interest rate associated with it, the Japanese yen performs well on the Forex market during the last few months. Traders panic currently overweights the usual profit-seeking behavior.
USD/JPY currency pair declined from 108.31 down to 107.74 after touching 105.52 this week. EUR/JPY reached its one-year lowest value this week at 150.59; it lost 3.5% going down from 159.25 to 153.67 — the largest drop since August 2007. GBP/JPY fell from 196.20 to 190.30 and touched 186.18 level — the lowest rate since December 2003.
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