CHINA

Yen’s Rise Boosts Debt Burden: The Japanese yen’s recent appreciation against global currencies has raised China’s debt burden and made Japanese imports more expensive, the official China Daily newspaper reported. During the past month, China’s renminbi has fallen 5.7% against the yen, tracking a 6.1% decline in the dollar’s value against the Japanese currency. “First of all, the rising yen is increasing the pressure on China to pay back Japan’s government loans in yen,” the China Daily quoted Shi Yonghai, president of China’s International Trade Research Institute, as saying. Between 1979 and August, 1993, the Japanese government provided China with 1.7 trillion yen in loans, worth about $10.9 billion at previous exchange rates, the paper said. The yen’s rise, coupled with this year’s depreciation of the yuan against the dollar, has pushed the value of those loans up by about 55% to $17 billion, the paper said. “So, in addition to interest, China has to pay a further $6 billion,” it said.