The yen had strengthened slightly against the US dollar and other currencies on Monday (16/05) morning after disappointment of economic news from China with impact in surplus in demand for safe-haven currencies like the Japanese Yen. Chinese investment, factory output and retail sales all missed estimates, raises further doubts about whether the country's economy grew steadily.
 |
| USD/JPY Struggles to Restore Strenght Post China's Data |
The Chinese economy, on Sunday (15/05) yesterday reported continued progress slowing growth in April, weighed down by overcapacity industries such as steel and coal. Chinese industrial production rose 6 percent in April compared with a year earlier, down from 6.8 percent in May and missed estimates by economists at the rate of 6.5 percent.
China's retail sales, too deviated from predictions of analysts, where the increase that emerged was 10.1 percent, while fixed asset investment rose 10.5 percent in the period from January to April, when the prediction is 11 percent.
Japan PPI contracted
Meanwhile, from Japan itself reported, the producer price index (PPI) contracted to minus 4.2 percent year-on-year in April, deteriorated from minus 3.8 percent decline in March and weaker than expectations for a decline of 3.7 percent. Basically, PPI Japan had improved after a decline to very low levels of the year in January, but slipped back in April because although there is a jump high enough on the price of petroleum and chemical industry price batubaram and chemicals is still weak.
