The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Tokyo

The dollar edged up towards a fresh four-and-a-half year high against the yen in Asian trade on Monday as players braced for another batch of US economic data, dealers said.

They said the Japanese currency was likely to remain under pressure following its recent slide to multi-year lows against the dollar and to an all-time nadir versus the euro, pressured by Japan's low interest rates.

The dollar rose to 123.92 in Tokyo afternoon trade from 123.85 in New York late on Friday when the unit had briefly hit 124.14 yen, the highest level since December 2002.

The euro slipped to 1.3459 dollars after 1.3467 and to 166.77 yen from 166.83, easing back from last week's record high against the Japanese currency.

"The market is not moving very much with traders expecting few surprises from this week's data," said Nobuo Kihara in forex sales at BNP Paribas.

The Federal Reserve kicks off a two-day policy meeting Wednesday and with the central bank widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged at 5.25 percent, the focus will be on the accompanying statement for clues on the chances of further rate hikes in the future, dealers said.

The yen remained under pressure as expectations that Japanese interest rates will remain low for some time encouraged players to keep borrowing cheap credit in Japan to put into higher yielding currencies, dealers said.