Japanese Yen Extends Losses As Data Misses Expectations

The Japanese yen is weakening against its US counterpart on Thursday after new data missed market forecasts. The currency is now looking to find direction on news that the federal government is aiming to allow more foreign workers to fill the labor gap in the world’s third-largest economy.

Core machinery orders climbed less than expected in October as the nation continued to recover from the massive earthquake in September. According to the latest numbers, there was a 7.6% jump month-on-month in core machinery orders, lower than the median estimate of 10.5%.
It is still an improvement from the historic decline of 18.3% in September. But some analysts are not optimistic that the rebound will continue, mainly because of the looming trade negotiations with the US and cooling foreign economies that will impact business sentiment.
In other data, it was reported on Wednesday that the corporate goods price index jumped 2.3% in November from the previous year. This is 0.1% lower than what experts had anticipated. The Indices of Tertiary Industry Activity rose 1.9% in October, beating median estimates of 0.9%.
Meanwhile, amid the mixed data, the Japanese government said that the nation is having its second-longest stretch of uninterrupted growth since the end of the Second World War. Officials cited Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s stimulus efforts over the last five years as expanding the economy and ending the prolonged stagnation.
A state panel said that the nation’s current economic growth started in December 2012.
Because of the upcoming trade talks between Washington and Tokyo, some experts are expressing caution and believe this era of uninterrupted growth may come to an end should the deliberations crumble.
The government also announced this week that it will relax immigration rules for foreigners looking to work in Japan beginning next year. Due to the severe labor shortages affecting the country, officials want to alleviate the situation of shrinking working-age population by accepting about 340,000 foreigners over the next five years. Critics are already sounding the alarm about foreign labor impacting the nation’s homogeneous society.
The USD/JPY currency pair rose 0.34% to 113.67, from an opening of 113.28, at 15:34 GMT on Thursday. The EUR/JPY ticked up 0.23% to 129.05, from an opening of 128.74.

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