By: lu.luke on Martedì 19 Febbraio 2002 09:18
02/19 01:29
Yen Falls After Shiokawa, Takenaka Damp Bank Aid Expectations
By Kanako Chiba and Mari Murayama
Tokyo, Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The yen had its biggest decline in more than a week after two Japanese officials doused expectations the government will arrange a bank aid package in time to keep some lenders from failing.
Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa and Economy and Fiscal Policy Minister Heizo Takenaka suggested Japan won't help banks immediately. Lenders, with an estimated 151 trillion yen ($1.13 trillion) in loans that aren't being repaid, must report their losses after March 31. The figures may spark enough concern that people will rush to take their money out of the nation's banks, forcing some of them out of business, analysts said.
``These remarks disappointed expectations for strong policy initiative,'' to help lenders, said Takashi Nakata, a manager of spot foreign exchange proprietary trading at BNP Paribas SA.
The Japanese currency had its biggest slide since Feb. 8, weakening to 133.44 versus its U.S. counterpart from 132.71 late yesterday in New York. Against the euro, it sank to 116.13 from 115.55.
Japan needs to deal with banks' bad loans to help snap its third recession in a decade, analysts said.
The yen's decline trimmed an advance that last week pushed the currency 1.6 percent higher. Those gains were fueled by expectations the government was close to helping banks.