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G7 seeks to defuse currency war fears

February 12, 2013 RSS Feed Print

The G-7 did not voice any direct concerns over the new Japanese economic approach, which the government hopes will get the world's number 3 economy growing again following two decades of stagnation and deflation. After all, Japan was a signatory of the statement.

"We reaffirm that our fiscal and monetary policies have been and will remain oriented towards meeting our respective domestic objectives using domestic instruments, and that we will not target exchange rates," the G-7 said.

Kiran Kowshik, a foreign exchange strategist at BNP Paribas, said the G-7 statement is unlikely to stop concerns about the recent developments in currency markets from being aired, and that the G-7 effectively gave traders the "green light" to carry on selling the yen.

In the immediate aftermath of the G-7 statement, the yen was sold off but then rallied strongly on speculation that an unnamed G-7 official later said the statement had been misinterpreted.

The euro was up 0.2 percent at $1.3420 while the dollar lost early gains against the Japanese yen to trade 0.4 percent lower at 93.85 yen. The yen was extremely volatile Tuesday — the dollar earlier hit a 21-month high of 94.40 yen, before falling sharply to 93.28 yen.

Kowshik added that the G-7 has "historically tended to back Japan in its policies" and that the statement laid the ground for what could be a "tense affair" in Moscow.

"There are a number of other countries like China, Russia, South Korea, etc. who have an increasing importance in the G-20 and are probably not too happy with some of the recent Japanese rhetoric," he said.

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Don Melvin in Brussels and David McHugh in Frankfurt contributed to this story.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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