Japan sees some advantage to high Yen

Seattle News.Net
Saturday 4th September, 2010

While Japan’s government officials are struggling to find ways to bring down the strength of the Yen, which has hit 15 year highs, there have been major benefits for some companies and consumers.

The Japanese Yen closed trading Friday at 84.39 Yen to the US dollar, up 0.28%.

So far this year, Japanese companies have spent over US$27 billion acquiring foreign companies, which in the second half of 2010 is far more than the total US$21 billion spent on foreign investment in 2009.

The greater spending power brought by the Yen is also fueling demand for goods at home as importers are able to bring in goods at vastly reduced prices, which has the subsequent benefit of increasing investment in the domestic economy.

In June figures, the Japanese travel sector also benefited with 10% more Japanese nationals travelling abroad compared to the previous month.

The export industries are the ones faced with the greatest disadvantage due to a lack of selling power while decreasing prices in the domestic economy have compressed Japanese wages relative to the rest of the world.

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