Yen strengthens in advance of G7 meeting

Story link: Yen strengthens in advance of G7 meeting

The Japanese yen strengthened on Thursday ahead of a meeting of the G7 scheduled for late next week in Singapore, where the International Monetary Fund will also hold a meeting next week. Germany’s deputy finance minister was quoted as saying that the yen will be discussed at both meetings. It had been expected earlier that the Chinese renminbi would be high on the agenda at both meetings, but the recent weakness of the yen, especially in relation to the euro, has caused concern among officials of the leading industrialized nations. Japanese officials, however, tried to diffuse speculation by insisting that there are no plans to focus on any specific currency at the G7 meeting.

At any rate, the yen was 0.7 percent higher versus both the euro and sterling, to ¥148.24 and ¥218.25 respectively, while it added 1.1 percent to ¥88.39 in relation to the Australian dollar. The Japanese currency was also higher against the US dollar, but only by 0.3 percent to ¥116.33.

The greenback, meanwhile, added 0.5 percent versus both the euro and sterling, to $1.2743 and $1.8751 respectively. The US currency was also up by 0.6 percent to TL1.473 in relation to the Turkish lira, by 0.8 percent to R7.371 against the South African rand, and by 1.8 percent to Ikr70.80 against the Icelandic krona.