China's central bank on Monday announced steps to slow the pace of the yuan's recent depreciation by making it more expensive to bet against the currency.
Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki issued a fresh warning on Monday about the weakening yen, saying that authorities stood ready to respond to speculative moves behind the currency's falls.
The remark came after the government's decision on Thursday to intervene in the currency market to stem yen weakness by selling dollars and buying yen for the first time since 1998.
Suzuki also told a news conference the government and the Bank of Japan (BOJ) were on the same page in sharing concerns about the currency's sharp declines.
"We are deeply concerned about recent rapid and one-sided market moves driven in part by speculative" trading," Suzuki told a news conference. "There's no change to our stance of being ready to respond as needed" to such moves, he added.
The yen's recent sharp declines, which have pushed up households' living costs by boosting imported fuel and food prices, have been driven in part by widening divergence between the U.S. Federal Reserve's aggressive monetary tightening and the BOJ's ultra-loose monetary policy.
BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda will deliver a speech to business leaders in Osaka, western Japan, later on Monday where he may comment on the yen and the government's intervention.
Source : Investing.com
Japanese business activity expanded slightly in September, preliminary data showed on Monday, although high inflation and a weakening yen continued to paint a bleak picture for the remainder of the year.
Japan's factory activity growth hit a 20-month low in September, as firms struggled with a global slowdown and pressure from high energy and raw material prices that was exacerbated by a weak yen.
US business activity contracted in September for a third-straight month, though at a more moderate pace as a pickup in orders and a further softening of inflation allayed concerns of a more-pronounced pullback.
U.S. companies borrowed 4% more in August to finance their investments in equipment compared with a year earlier, industry body ELFA said on Friday, while raising doubts over the sustainability of this growth amid slowdown fears.