“The yen weakened, falling toward 100 per dollar for the first time since April 2009, after Bank of Japan (8301) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said he was emboldened to press ahead with a campaign to defeat deflation.
Japan’s currency dropped against 15 of its 16 major counterparts after the Group of 20 offered no opposition to the central bank’s monetary stimulus policies at a meeting last week inWashington. Sweden’s krona strengthened after Riksbank Deputy Governor Lars E.O. Svensson said he will leave the central bank after failing to get support for deeper interest-rate cuts. The euro rose for a third day versus the yen after Giorgio Napolitano was re-elected to a second term as Italian president.
“The BOJ has definitely altered the psychology of the market” toward the yen, said Stephen Gallo, European head of currency strategy at Bank of Montreal in London. “The safe- haven attributes of the yen have been fundamentally and drastically altered for the foreseeable future.”
The yen fell 0.2 percent to 99.74 per dollar at 6:54 a.m. in New York after depreciating to 99.90, the weakest since it declined to a four-year low of 99.95 on April 11. Japan’s currency dropped 0.2 percent to 130.09 per euro. The euro was little changed at $1.3044.
G-20 finance chiefs and central bankers meeting on April 19 praised the measures taken by the BOJ this month aimed at increasing inflation to 2 percent within two years. They signaled Japan’s focus on supporting domestic demand was strong enough to allow them to ignore the side-effects on their own economies of a sliding yen.
