BLBG:Yen Erases Gain as Aso Says G-7 Acknowledges Japan Policy Goal
The yen erased its advance against the dollar and fell versus the euro after Finance Minister Taro Aso said the Group of Seven nations acknowledged Japan isn’t targeting exchange rates with its monetary policy.
Japan’s currency trimmed gains of as much as 0.5 percent versus the dollar after the G-7 said in a statement its members will consult closely on foreign exchange. The efforts of Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to push for more aggressive monetary policy, which pushed the yen to the weakest since May 2010 yesterday, had raised concern the government was seeking to directly weaken the currency, something Aso denied. The euro rose versus all except one of its 16 major counterparts.
“There was nothing in the G-7 statement to make markets think Japan is about to come under concerted international pressure to do an about face,” said Daragh Maher, a currency strategist at HSBC Holdings Plc in London. “The yen will weaken a little more.”
Japan’s currency traded at 94.28 per dollar at 6:03 a.m. in New York after strengthening to 93.87. The yen dropped 0.3 percent to 126.82 per euro after climbing as much as 0.7 percent. The euro rose 0.4 percent to $1.3459.
The yen has tumbled 18 percent in the past three months, the worst performer of 10 developed-nation currencies tracked by Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Currency Indexes. The euro rose 5.3 percent, while the dollar declined 1.1 percent.
“We reaffirm that our fiscal and monetary policies have been and will remain oriented towards meeting our respective domestic objectives using domestic instruments, and that we will not target exchange rates,” G-7 finance ministers and central bank governors said in a statement released today in London.
Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20, which includes the G-7 and emerging markets such as Brazil, China and India, are set to meet in Moscow on Feb. 15-16.
To contact the reporter on this story: Lucy Meakin in London at lmeakin1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Dobson at pdobson2@bloomberg.net
