TOKYO - Japan said it will continue to intervene to curb a strong yen if necessary, just hours before G7 and IMF officials meet to discuss escalating tension over currency policies, and Thailand is also poised to act.
China, which has rebuffed calls from the West to let its currency rise faster, allowed the yuan to firm on Friday to its highest against the dollar since a revaluation in July 2005.
Traders said Beijing may be making some concessions ahead of International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings this weekend. But they said any further rise would be limited so as not to harm its exports.
With positions entrenched, expectations for any meaningful agreement in Washington are low although fears of a global currency war have jumped to the top of the agenda.
"We are approaching a G7 meeting, but regardless of this, Japan will take firm measures, including intervention, when needed," Japanese Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda told reporters when asked about the yen's rise to another 15-year high on Thursday. "This is Japan's basic stance."
Japan, worried a strong yen would hit its vital export sector, intervened in the market for the first time in six years last month, drawing criticism from its peers.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan sounded a little more conciliatory, saying Tokyo wanted to cooperate with its Group of Seven peers on currencies, but in the same breath reiterated the message that the authorities would take "decisive steps" if needed.
G7 leaders hold a closed-doors dinner on Friday.
Emerging anger
Global policymakers have been clashing over the dollar's broad-based decline, with emerging economies stepping up efforts to cap their currencies, actions which developed nations argue could derail economic recovery.
Thailand's finance minister will propose measures to handle the baht's strength at a cabinet meeting next week, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said on Friday.
The baht, which has risen about 11 percent against the dollar this year, the second-best performer in Asia after the yen, slipped after the comments.
Russian Deputy Finance Minister Dmitry Pankin said Brazil, China, India and Russia -- the so-called BRICs -- see the current moves in emerging markets currencies as a deeper problem that cannot be solved through a free float.
"Free float is not an exit prescription, it's not a prescription for all illnesses," he told reporters after a meeting of deputy finance ministers in Washington on Thursday.
Chinese premier Wen Jiabao, in Europe this week, politely rejected calls to let the yuan appreciate faster and Brazil on Monday doubled a tax on foreign investors buying local bonds, trying to curb a currency rally.
Yi Gang, a deputy governor of the People's Bank of China (PBOC), was quoted as saying on Friday that while China would continue to reform its exchange rate regime a sharp rise in the yuan would harm its economy.
Entrenched positions
Despite low expectations for the weekend talks in Washington, moves are afoot to create a more effective forum to tackle currency issues.
France will start talks on overhauling the global monetary system during its forthcoming G20 presidency to improve policy coordination and stem capital flows distorting exchange rates, Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said.
"If you look ... at the latest moves that are taking place, whether from Brazil or from Japan for instance, let alone from China, you really wonder what kind of coordination there is," she said.
German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported that IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn plans to present the lender's members with a "systemic stability initiative" which will bring together the world's leading economic powers in a regular forum aimed at resolving currency issues.
Participants would include the United States, large European countries, Japan, China and other emerging market countries that are important for the global financial system, the newspaper said without citing sources.
Officials from developing markets say ultra-low interest rates in rich countries are fueling massive fund flows into their markets, pushing up their currencies and inflating prices of stocks, property and other assets.
Japan cut interest rates to zero this week and the US Federal Reserve is also expected to ease policy further.
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