Dollar’s relentless rise ‘sending shivers through global markets’

In the early hours of Monday morning last week in New York, currency traders watching the collapsing value of the Japanese yen noticed an unexpected jump in the beleaguered exchange rate.

After hitting a three-decade low of ¥160 to the dollar on April 29, the yen staged an improbable rebound to ¥157 to the dollar. The move upwards was not the result of a sudden burst of buying from investors but instead marked the first major currency intervention from the Japanese authorities in nearly two years.

Japan’s drastic move to prop up the weakening yen is one of a number of emergency measures from global central banks trying to protect themselves from the rocketing US currency, whose surge is asphyxiating lower-income countries and now spilling