By: Barbara Zigah
The Japanese Yen slipped lower against the common currency and the Australian Dollar in Asian trading today, and analysts expect further weakening as risk appetite increases, generally. As reported at 2:52 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo at one point in the session on the EBS trading platform the Euro traded against the Yen at 123.33 Yen, a 16% gain from the mid-March trough of 106.50 Yen, before trimming gains to 122.62 Yen. The Australian Dollar also struck a 2 ½ year high against the Yen, when it struck 90.04 Yen earlier in the session; later, some of the gains were pared when it traded at 89.64 Yen still higher by 0.1%.
According to analysts, the Japanese central bank is likely to lag behind other countries’ central banks in order to give their nation a chance to recover from the tragic earthquake and tsunami which struck last month. The Japanese economy had been in a long period of stagflation, and most analysts agree that this event will likely shift the economy’s direction. The Japanese Yen had been a consistently strong currency prior to the earthquake, and repatriated flows endanger its resumption. The G7 has been collectively and successfully working to suppress the Yen’s rise.