Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi urged Europe on Tuesday
to come up with a transparent scheme to resolve the Greek debt crisis, to help
stabilize the world economy and keep the euro from weakening too
much against the yen.
Azumi, speaking to reporters
after a cabinet meeting, said he had told European Central Bank member
Christian Noyer in a meeting on Monday that Europe must swiftly implement
measures agreed in July to beef up Europe's bailout fund.
Governments in Europe are
passing measures to expand the 440 billion euro ($590 billion) European
Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) bailout fund by allowing it to make
precautionary loans, help recapitalize banks and buy government debt in the
secondary market.
"I told Noyer that a
sense of uncertainty cannot be dispelled unless (euro zone countries) show a process whereby they
will immediately implement rescue measures agreed on July 21 through approval
in parliaments of 17 member nations," Azumi told reporters after a cabinet
meeting.
"To stabilize the world
economy and halt the yen's excessive rises against the euro, I want (Europe) to
make the Greek rescue scheme easy to understand and make its process more
transparent for market players."
Azumi also said Tokyo share
prices are undervalued when looking at Japanese listed firms' actual strength,
and renewed a pledge to tackle the yen's rises, saying they are becoming a
destabilizing factor for Japanese exporters.
The yen hovered at a 10-year
peak of 101 against the euro on Tuesday and held firm against the dollar as
fears of a Greek debt default prompted a massive flight to safety that offset
worries about yen-weakening intervention by Japan.
The Nikkei average dropped
over 2 percent on Tuesday to its lowest in six months below 8,360 as trading
companies fell on weaker commodity prices and the financial sector was
pressured by fears that Europe's debt crisis is spreading.
Despite ever deeper
cost-cutting measures, Greece admitted on Monday that it will miss
its fiscal deficit target this year, sparking fresh doubts over a planned
second international bailout.
Azumi also said budget
requests from Japanese ministries and government offices are expected to top 98
trillion yen ($1.278 trillion), a record amount, for the fiscal year from next
April, due in part to calls for funding to rebuild areas devastated by the
March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
(Reporting by Tetsushi
Kajimoto and Leika Kihara;
Editing by Michael
Watson and Chris
Gallagher)
Source : Reuters
No comments:
Post a Comment