After disappointing industrial output figure the Japanese government announced an increase in their currency intervention fund.
Finance Minister Jun Azumi said the government would authorize a further 15 trillion yen ($195 billion) for market interventions, effectively increasing the amount available to a record 46 trillion yen.
He also said the government will maintain for two more months monitoring of currency traders’ daily positions put in place last month to discourage speculative bets on the yen’s rise.
The current credit crisis in Europe and the US have made the Japanese Yen a safe haven of sorts for investors. This in turn has increased the value of the currency, which being a net exporter ends up hurting the overall economy. So far the Bank of Japan has intervened without much success in the past months, but the market sees the intention as a positive one.
via CNBC Asia
