The dollar fell against the yen in Asia on Wednesday after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s speech on his growth strategy for the economy delivered few surprises. The greenback bought 99.72 yen in Tokyo afternoon trade from 99.98 yen in New York late Tuesday, slipping from earlier on the day. The euro also edged down to 130.50 yen from 130.79 yen. It bought $1.3090 against $1.3079 in New York.
Abe delivered a speech Wednesday to outline more details on his plans to boost growth in Japan.
But analysts said the speech failed to ignite interest, with the main points already well-touted ahead of time.
“I don’t think it has had such a strong impact. It had nothing new and was in line with what has been reported,” said Daisuke Karakama, market economist at Mizuho Corporate Bank. The market already knew that there would be no drastic measures such as corporate tax cuts, he said.
Abe’s policy of active government spending coupled with the Bank of Japan’s aggressive monetary easing boosted Tokyo stock prices to multi-year highs, but the market has been prone to wild swings of late.
Wednesday afternoon was no exception, with the Nikkei 225 index dropping more than 3 percent in afternoon trade. In the present febrile atmosphere, utterances from Abe and his ministers are closely watched for cues that can send players rushing to one end of the boat to the other.
