With the Liberal Democratic Party returning to power on the platform of aggressive measures to stimulate economic growth, the Japanese yen exchange traded fund has been weakening as currency traders bet on looser monetary policies.
CurrencyShares Japanese Yen Trust (NYSEArca: FXY) is down more than 7% the past three months and about 9% lower year-to-date.
The Japanese yen is trading around 84.84 to the dollar, a 20-month low, after incoming Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stated he would retract the Bank of Japan’s autonomy if it does not boost its inflation target. [Currency-Hedged Japan ETF Surges to $1 Billion After Election]
“The currency’s drop has been due to the pressure exerted by Shinzo Abe on the BOJ to increase their monetary activism,” Ravi Bharadwaj, a market analyst at Western Union Business Solutions, said in a Bloomberg report. “Increases in quantitative easing or interest rate reducing programs generally weaken a nation’s currency via the carry trade.”
“Abe saying he will rewrite the legislation for the Bank of Japan (8301) if it doesn’t impose its own higher inflation target has definitely been a reason for yen underperformance,” Richard Franulovich, a senior currency strategist at Westpac Banking Corp., said in the article. “We’re finally seeing how exactly he’s going to implement one of his key election platforms, which is a much more dovish BOJ.”
So far this year, the Japanese yen has dropped 12.8%, with a 3.6% dip in the past month alone.