With the Group of 20 overlooking Japan’s aggressive monetary policies amid grumblings of a currency war, the Japanese yen, along with related currency exchange traded fund, continues to depreciate.
CurrencyShares Japanese Yen Trust (NYSEArca: FXY) was down 1.5% in afternoon trading Friday. The fund is down 11.8% year-to-date.
The G-20 block of countries were not opposed to Japan’s shift in monetary policies, as long as their goal was to beat deflation instead of weakening its currency to help domestic exporters, reports Wanfeng Zhou for Reuters.
“The Bank of Japan has been very aggressive about its monetary policy, and as long as inflation in Japan is at negative rates, their stance is going to continue to be justified,” Sireen Harajli, a currency strategist at Credit Agricole SA (ACA), said in a Bloomberg article. “There’s definitely more scope for aggressive monetary policy.”
The U.S. dollar has appreciated 1.5% against the yen, trading around $99.7 to the Japanese currency.
“Over the last week we have heard support for the BoJ aggressive policy from several fronts,” Camilla Sutton, chief currency strategist at Scotia Capital, said in the Reuters article.”Together this suggests that even with dollar/yen at 100, there is unlikely to be a global backlash; this in turn opens up the opportunity for dollar/yen to test higher still.”