Yen drops against dollar in losing streak

The yen was down against the dollar in its longest weekly losing streak in almost a quarter-century as speculation was rife that Japanese policy makers were preparing measures to stimulate the economy that may debase the currency.

The euro was up against all of its 16 most-traded peers as European Central Bank president Mario Draghi said the region's economy should gradually recover. South Africa's rand was down as Fitch Ratings downgraded the nation and the yen touched a 30-month low against the dollar after Japan's government said it would spend 10.3 trillion yen ($116 billion) in new stimulus efforts (See: Japan to spend $116 bn to recover from recession).

The Bank of Japan would meet again on 21-22 January.

According to some analysts, the overall trend remained downward for the Japanese currency and the key to the outlook for the yen was going to be whether or not the Bank of Japan took that aggressive stance that the market anticipated, and to see how successful the government was at stimulating.

The yen was down 1.2 per cent to 89.18 per dollar in New York trading this week reaching 89.45, the weakest level since 28 June 2010.

This came as the currency's ninth weekly loss, the longest stretch since 10 weeks ended in February 1989. The Japanese currency was down 3.3 per cent to 119.01 per euro in its fifth weekly loss and touched 119.35, the least since May 2011.