By Yasin Ebrahim
The dollar remained lower against the yen Wednesday amid a bid in safe-haven assets as investor fears were realized after the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus a global pandemic.
“In the past two weeks the number of cases outside China has increased thirteenfold and the number of affected countries has tripled,” WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference on Wednesday. “In the days and weeks ahead, we expect to see the number of cases, the number of deaths and the number of affected countries to climb even higher.”
USD/JPY fell to 0.72% to Y104.86.
The spread of the coronavirus has overshadowed stimulus moves by global finance institutions to offset the impact of the virus, with Bank of England slashing rates by half a point earlier today.
The U.K government, meanwhile, revealed a 12 billion pound ($15.43 billion) fund to combat the coronavirus.
GBP/USD fell sharply against the dollar, down nearly 0.34% on the day.
