The yen weakened against the New Zealand dollar yesterday after Kyodo News reported Japan may consider investing about 10 percent of its public pension-reserve funds in assets with “high risks and high returns.”
Japan’s pension-reserve balance was 123 trillion yen ($1.28 trillion) as of March 2009, Kyodo said, citing Health Minister Yoichi Masuzoe.
“If the government wants to buy more foreign bonds for its public pension reserve funds, that’s yen negative,” said Masaki Fukui, a senior market economist in Tokyo at Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd., Japan’s second-largest publicly traded lender.
The losses cut the yen’s weekly gain against the New Zealand dollar to 1.6 percent. Japan’s currency climbed 0.2 percent against the Australian dollar this week to 76.72 yen.