currency. Meanwhile, Japanese Finance Ministry also came to the dollar's rescue by saying it had no intention of changing its reserves.
Yen came under additional pressure after data showed Japan's trade surplus in January fell 59.9 percent from the same month a year earlier to 200.8 billion yen, below a median market forecast of 507.9 billion yen.
As the week came to an end, yen continued its soft tone after a report showed deflation deepening in Japan, with the core Consumer Price Index falling 0.3 percent in January from a year earlier, compared with a decline of 0.2 percent in each of the prior two months.
Range for this week: 103.70-106.70
Sterling
Sterling started the week on a strong foot against the dollar, finding favour as market focus shifted to differences in interest rates.
British interest rates stand at 4.75 percent, compared with 2.5 percent in the United States and strong economic data out of UK in recent weeks has fuelled expectations for another rate rise this year.
BoE Monetary Policy Committee member Kate Barker said in a newspaper interview that British interest rates might need to rise again but the peak in borrowing costs might not be much higher. Meanwhile, property web site Rightmove said that prices on British homes rose 2.3 percent from mid- January to mid- February.
Sterling extended its gains against the dollar after Bank of England minutes showed that one member of its policy-setting committee voted to hike interest rates.
Meanwhile, the confederation of British Industry said 20 percent of firms said their order books were above normal while 30 percent said they were below, leaving the total order books balance at -10 in February, up slightly from -13 in January.
Sterling ended the week higher against the dollar, recouping losses made earlier when data showed slightly disappointing fourth-quarter growth.
Next week brings further key data on the housing market and manufacturing sector, which includes the Nation wide February house prices survey and the CIPS February manufacturing survey.
Range for this week: $1.9050-$1.9350
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- Saturday, February 26 - 2005 at 17:07
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