Japan ready to step in
Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso confirmed yesterday that his department remained on the alert and prepared to take action as needed if market movements were primarily driven by speculation. It will be interesting to see whether finance leaders gathered in Washington this week for the G20 summit will comment on the Japanese position. During the last meeting in February, it was agreed to minimize market interventions in order to calm the currency war (competitive devaluation).
In the past few hours, we have learned that the UK Consumer Price Index for March reached its highest level in 15 months at 0.5%. The pound sterling is trading in positive territory against all its peers except for the Australian dollar. Today will be another quiet day on the indicator front in North America as we await the Bank of Canada’s key rate decision tomorrow.
