-->Yen Climbs to 6-Week High on Report Japan to End Currency Sales

March 29 (Bloomberg) -- The yen rose to its highest in more than six weeks against the dollar in Asia after the Times of London newspaper reported Japan will end sales of its currency because the economic recovery is accelerating.

Japan no longer needs a weaker currency to bolster exports, the Times said, citing unnamed Bank of Japan officials. The world's second-biggest economy last quarter grew at its fastest pace in 13 years, spurring overseas investors to buy Japanese shares. Japan sold 10.5 trillion yen ($99.6 billion) in the two months ended Feb. 25, about half of 2003's record annual total.

''Investors have already been thinking there's going to be less intervention,'' said Harvinder Kalirai, head of market research and analysis in Sydney at State Street Corp., the world's largest custodian of assets, with $9.4 trillion under custody. ''Everything we're seeing from Japanese data is showing the economy is on an upswing. The yen is going to continue to rise.''

Against the dollar, the yen rose to 105.37 at 7:54 a.m. in Tokyo, according to EBS prices, its highest since Feb. 11, from 106.02 late Friday in New York. It has strengthened by 6.6 percent since trading at a five-month low on March 8.

Japan's Topix index last week rose to its highest since Aug. 22. Global investors bought 1.15 trillion yen of Japanese stocks in the week ended March 19, the most since the Ministry of Finance began tracking the figures in April 2001. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average has gained 10 percent this year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has lost 0.4 percent.

To contact the reporter on this story:
John Brinsley in Tokyo at
or jbrinsley@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor on this story:
Walter Krumholz in Tokyo wkrumholz@bloomberg.net;
Daniel Moss at dmoss@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 28, 2004 17:58 EST

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/markets/currencies.html

-->Japan: Intervention Policy Will Continue
Sunday March 28, 7:42 pm ET

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Ministry of Finance (MOF) said on Monday it would continue its foreign exchange intervention, shrugging off a British newspaper report that Tokyo would stop its massive forays into the currency market.

Japan has been intervening in accordance with a Group of Seven (G7) statement issued last month that said excessive volatility was undesirable, and that policy remains unchanged, a senior MOF official told Reuters."We have been intervening all along based on the Boca Raton statement -- that excessive volatility and disorderly movements are undesirable -- and we will continue to do so if necessary," the official said.

Japan has conducted more than 30 trillion yen ($285 billion) of yen-selling intervention since the start of last year in a bid to rein in the buoyant yen. The yen rose to 3-1/2-year highs near 105.10 to the dollar last month, up more than 10 percent from lows near 120 set last August.

Earlier on Monday, the yen rose sharply to come within a whisker of last month's highs on a report on the Web site of the Times newspaper that quoted Bank of Japan officials as saying Japan was"confident the Japanese recovery no longer depends on export strength... the interventions have served their purpose."

The yen has since pulled back sharply but the MOF official declined to confirm whether the ministry intervened on Monday.

The official noted it was the ministry that controlled Japan's foreign exchange policy, not the central bank.

"Intervention policy is set by the Ministry of Finance. I don't know what the BOJ is saying (in the Times report) but people should ask us (about currency policy)," the official said.

Japan's intervention funds come from the MOF's foreign exchange special account. When intervention takes place, the ministry places orders with the BOJ, which then makes the transactions in the market as an agent bank.

The MOF official also played down speculation that the ministry may no longer feel a need to keep the yen down once the March 31 book-closings for most Japanese corporations are over.

"There seems to be a lot of talk about a policy change in March or April, but there is no change in our intervention policy," he said. ($1=105.28 yen)

-->irgendwann kann man nicht mehr exponentiell stützen, da fehlt die Kohle - hast Du vielleicht die exakten Zahlen zu Japan, siehe mein Posting
<ul> ~ http://f17.parsimony.net/forum30434/messages/263551.htm</ul>