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Japan moves to devalue Yen

Summary

15 September 2010

Japan's central bank has begun selling Yen in an attempt to reduce the value of the Japanese currency, which has been trading at 15-year highs against the US dollar.

Reporter:

Theo Leggett 

Report

For much of the past three years, the Japanese Yen has been gaining ground against the US dollar. That's bad news for Japan's biggest exporters.

In recent months, the government has been under increasing pressure to intervene, to prevent the country's fragile economic recovery from being choked off.

However, Wednesday's announcement took many analysts by surprise, because Prime Minister Naoto Kan had been widely seen as reluctant to take such a step.

Some experts have also questioned the effectiveness of the move, without parallel actions from other leading central banks.

Theo Leggett, BBC News, London