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as exporters repatriated overseas earnings and Japan insisted that it
would not intervene to weaken its currency. The dollar sank as low as
88.25 yen, the weakest since late January. In late morning London
trade it stood at 89.49 yen, down from 89.60 in New York on Friday.
The European single currency fell to 130.90 yen from 131.64 , and
to 1.4627 dollars from 1.4686 , as also traders digested the
re-election of Angela Merkel as German chancellor. The pound
continued to suffer after Bank of England governor Mervyn King had
said last week that the currency's weakness was " helpful" for
rebalancing the British economy. Sterling sank on Monday as low as
1.0752 against the euro, a level last seen in December. Markets were
looking ahead to US data including personal income and spending
figures on Thursday as well as a key monthly jobs report on Friday.
On Monday, Japanese Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii reiterated that
the new government was not considering a foray into the market to
sell the yen and help exporters. "The recent dollar trend (against
the yen) is not abnormal," he said. It would be a "mistake" to
artificially weaken the yen to defend exporters, he added, restating
the new government's view that a stronger yen would boost consumption
at home thanks to cheaper imports. His remarks gave dealers "the
green light" to sell the dollar for yen, Mizuho Corporate Bank
senior dealer Yuichiro Harada told Dow Jones Newswires.
