Excessively rising Yen worries Tokyo but keeps its hand off the currency trading
Japan's finance ministry has expressed concern on Friday that the rise of Yen was beyond the country's expectations as Finance Minister Naoto Kan admitted that the currency's seemingly uncontrollable upward spirals are causing worries over the global economy.
He gave assurance though that the government is closely monitoring the situation in order to ensure that any further movements will be far from becoming excessive, stressing at the same time that "it is desirable that the Yen will stabilise at an appropriate level."
Mr Kan is also quick to add that no government intervention is being planned as of this time amidst tumbling stocks on Wall Street today that sent rippling worries in Asian markets, which are still reeling from shocks brought by the eurozone debt crisis and the still questionable status of the US economy.
US stocks plunged by up to 3.60 percent as investors are coming to terms on a spectre of a worsening sovereign debt issue in Europe while data released by federal authorities showed that worrying numbers of Americans were queuing for insurance claims over the last five weeks.
Tokyo became concern with the situation as investors rallied to the conventionally safe-haven Yen which unnecessarily kicked up its value and sending worries to the government for its negative impact on the repatriated revenues of exporters who are the main driving force behind the country's recovery from the recent recession.
Notwithstanding the grave concerns showed by the finance ministry, Mr Kan revealed that Tokyo has no plans to take concrete measures in the currency market, adding that "Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama told us that we have to watch closely the financial situation at home and abroad and to deal with it appropriately."
He said that the government has no specific preferred value for the Yen as the market must dictate its actual worth even as the dollar played around 89-90 Yen in Tokyo trading while the floundering Euro gained traction of up to 113.67 Yen, coming from 111.97 in New York trading yesterday.
Along this line, the Bank of Japan on Friday sustained its operations to boost market liquidity by infusing one trillion Yen or $US11.11 billion into the short-term money market trading while opting to maintain key interest rate at 0.1 percent.