Though many markets will be closed on Monday as a legal celebration of Sunday’s Christmas holiday, Asian markets opened to thin trading volumes. The U.S. dollar eased 0.2 percent against the yen, trading at 117.300. The euro remained steady at $1.0457, and the Australian dollar remained stable as well, trading at $0.7178, up slightly from Friday’s eight-month lows.
In a statement on Monday the Bank of Japan’s Governor Haruhiko Kuroda expressed optimism for the future and noted that the global financial crisis finally seems to be a thing of the past. He confirmed the BOJ’s new policy initiatives which are aimed at keeping long-term interest rates near zero percent, which he hopes will continue propelling Japan’s economy forward.
Chinese commerce minister Gao Hucheng said on monday Monday that China’s non-financial outbound direct investment will likely hit 1.12 trillion yuan ($161.19 billion) in 2016, up 76.5 percent from last year, when the country’s ODI was 735.1 billion yuan. He also noted that foreign direct investment into China will be 785 billion yuan. Beijing will be attempting to tighten controls of money moving out of China, and will be looking more closely at outbound investments in the near future, as the country’s foreign exchange reserves settle at the lowest rates in nearly six years.