Bloomberg
Published: August 11, 2009, 23:10
Tokyo: The yen rose after reports showed Chinese exports and new loans fell and industrial output rose less than estimated, fuelling demand for the currency as a refuge from the global financial turmoil.

The yen climbed the most against the New Zealand dollar and South Korea’s won as Europe’s Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index of shares fell 0.3 per cent. The won slid against the 16 most-traded currencies after the nation’s central bank said it will maintain an “accommodative” monetary policy.

“With China reducing lending we’ll have a much more difficult standing in equities and when that happens, the yen will benefit,” said Hans-Guenter Redeker, head of foreign-exchange strategy in London at BNP Paribas SA. “The currency markets will have to adjust to more risk aversion.”

The yen strengthened to 136.81 per euro in New York, from 137.36 Monday. It earlier traded at 136.46, the strongest level since August 5. It appreciated to 96.50 per dollar, from 97.15, and to 159.30 against the pound, from 160.13. The euro rose to $1.4177, from $1.4140. It bought 85.88 British pence, from 85.80 pence.

China’s statistics bureau said exports slid 23 per cent in July from a year earlier, while the central bank reported that news loans plunged to less than a quarter of June’s level. Industrial production grew 10.8 per cent, the statistics bureau reported. That’s below the median estimate for a 11.5 per cent gain forecast by economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.