TOKYO (MNI) – Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi said on Tuesday
that the downgrading of European Financial Stability Facility credit
ratings by Standard & Poor’s won’t affect Tokyo’s buying of EFSF bonds.
He also told reporters that Monday’s downgrade is unlikely to
immediately hurt market confidence in the debt issued by the EFSF.
Japan has purchased EFSF bonds “as valuable assets” and thus it
will continue to buy them, he said.
Japanese officials believe that buying bonds denominated in foreign
currencies will help ease the upward pressure on the yen against the
dollar and the euro.
Azumi repeated that the sharp drop in the euro will have a major
impact on Japanese exporter profits.
Asked if Tokyo will intervene to stem the yen’s rise against the
single currency, he replied, “We will watch forex market developments
carefully.”
tokyo@marketnews.com
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