Yen Opens Sharply Lower After Holiday

The Japanese yen opened sharply lower today as some policy makers were worried about slowing economic growth. Such worries suggest that the central bank will continue to pursue the path of monetary easing to spur growth.

The Bank of Japan policy minutes were rather optimistic as most policy makers were expecting economic expansion to persist. Yet one central bank’s member was worried that the recent slowdown of gross domestic product growth was not temporary, but rather “could represent a downward shift in the trend”. It was enough to weaken the yen, which opened much lower today than it has closed before the Christmas holiday.

USD/JPY was at about 104.73 as pf 9:14 GMT today, near the opening level of 104.71, while it closed at 104.25 on December 24. EUR/JPY rose from 143.26 to 143.44 after closing at 142.56 ahead of Christmas.

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