Japanese yen is lower across the board today, dropping as continued economic stimulus measures keep the currency lower against its major counterparts. With economic stimulus likely to continue in Japan, yen weakness is expected to be a regular part of the landscape.
The economic stimulus efforts in place by the Bank of Japan are expected to be working, with expectations high for an upward revision to GDP for the second quarter of 2013. However, even with that improvement, stimulus measures are expected to continue. There are still plenty of concerns that the Japanese economy could regress if the unprecedented easing program championed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe isn’t continued.
It also looks as though plans to raise the sales tax in April are likely to go through. Over the weekend, Economy Minister Akira Amari said that a number of officials on panels set up for consultation are on board with the sales tax increase.
Weakness in the yen is prompting gains for the Japanese stock market as well. The Topix and Nikkei both saw solid gains today, thanks to the weaker yen.
At 14:14 GMT USD/JPY is up to 99.1900 from the open at 98.4180. EUR/JPY is up to 130.9165 from the open at 130.0710. GBP/JPY is up to 154.4430 from the open at 152.9180.
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