If policymakers in the eurozone and Japan hoped to engineer a weaker currency by their aggressive expansion of monetary policy, they must be watching the latest moves in currency markets with dismay. Despite fresh rounds of quantitative easing and radical experiments with negative interest rates — usually associated with a weaker exchange rate — the euro and yen have rallied. Threats of official intervention from Tokyo did nothing to prevent the yen climbing last week to a 17-month high against the dollar.
如果欧元区和日本的政策制定者希望通过货币政策的积极扩张使得汇率下跌,他们肯定正在沮丧地看着最近外汇市场的动向。尽管推出了数轮量化宽松并祭出了负利率的激进试验——通常会导致汇率下跌的举措——但是欧元和日元汇率均出现上涨。日本官方干预市场的威胁未能阻止日元兑美元汇率近日攀升至17个月高点。