The Japanese yen slipped today against most other major currencies after the central bank’s official said that they would closely monitor the currency’s movement, leading to the speculations that the central bank would limit the yen’s gains.
The current grim outlook for the global economy is generally favorable to the yen as the safe currency. The US unemployment claims rose unexpectedly last week. The Standard & Poorâs 500 Index dropped 1.2 percent before and the MSCI World Index went down 0.6 percent. But much of the Japanese currency’s appeal was lost after Masaaki Shirakawa, the Governor of the Bank of Japan, said that Japan’s policy makers would watch the currency markets and their impact on the nationâs economy, hinting that they are worried about the strong yen’s gains.
Omer Esiner, chief market analyst of Commonwealth Foreign Exchange Inc., said:
The fact that officials are becoming a little more vocal about the risks of yen strength to their very fragile economy, that has for the near term slowed its ascent. The comments overnight by various Japanese officials have limited the yenâs
near-term gains.
USD/JPY rose from 85.31 to 85.88 as of 20:50 GMT after it slumped to 84.92. EUR/JPY traded at 110.16 and GBP/JPY traded near 133.80.
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