By: Barbara Zigah
The recent release of economic data from China, indicating that their economy is continuing to grow at a fast pace even as inflationary pressures increase, raised investor expectations that monetary tightening measures will be put in place by the Chinese administration, and that the Chinese Yuan will be permitted to appreciate. These factors helped the Japanese Yen eliminate some of yesterday’s losses as market players reduced the long positions held in higher yielding currencies. As reported at 1:06 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the Japanese yen gained .3% to trade at 90.25 Yen; yesterday, it fell as low a s 90.83 Yen on the EBS trading platform, a 2-week trough.
Versus the Japanese Yen, the Australian Dollar lost .6%, trading at 82.25 Yen. Against the U.S. Dollar, the Australian Dollar slipped to $0.9120, a .3% decline in the day’s trading though at one point in the session it had fallen to $0.9113. On Wednesday, the Aussie struck a 7-week peak when it touched on $0.9193. Market players expect the Australian currency’s decline to be short-lived, however, as it is believed that the country’s central bank will be raising key interest rates within the next few months. The New Zealand Dollar also slipped against the U.S. currency, falling .5% to trade at $0.6984. The New Zealand central bank recently declined to raise interest rates, as investors had hoped.