TOKYO (MNI) – Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi on Monday told
visiting Inter-American Development Bank President Luis Alberto Moreno
that the lingering strong yen is having a negative impact on Japan’s
exporters and that the U.S. and euro zone economic conditions remain the
major cause of concern, a Ministry of Finance official told reporters.
Moreno told Azumi that Latin America’s economic climate is fine,
with the region’s economic growth forecast by the IDB at 4.5% this year
and 4.0% in 2012, the MOF official said.
The International Monetary Fund’s latest projection for global
economic growth is for 4.0% for both this year and next, slowing from
the 2010 growth of 5.1%.
MOF data released on Monday showed that Japan’s exports rose for
the second straight month in September on the recovery of car shipments
but the pace of their on-year increase decelerated to 2.4% from 2.8% in
August amid slowing global growth and the yen’s rise to record highs.
The yen hit a fresh post-war high of Y75.78 against the dollar on
Friday amid heightened concerns about the European sovereign debt
crisis, threatening Japan’s export-led economic recovery.
On Saturday, Azumi warned that Japan’s government is ready to “take
decisive action against excessive and speculative moves” in foreign
exchange rates, media reports said. This indicates Tokyo will intervene
in the forex market, if necessary, to stop the yen’s rapid rise from
hurting Japan’s export-led recovery.
tokyo@marketnews.com
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