商业报道:日元汇率持续走高

Bad news for exporters in the world's second largest economy as if the global economic slowdown were not enough to currency markets, making it very difficult for Japan's largest companies.

The US dollar sunk into the upper eighties. That is the lowest level since January of this year. This makes it very difficult for these large companies in this export-driven economy to thrive. Companies like Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Sony, Panasonic, all depend on the strength of the US dollar. Now this is a figure that Toyota has cited in its past. Just give you an idea of how difficult it is for these companies when the currency markets are against them.

One Yen¹ movement, according to Toyota equals about four hundred million US dollars. Now if you translate that into what has happened to the Yan before Japan slipped into recession, it was about one ten, one twenty. And what it looks like today, that's about thirty Yen difference. That equals about twelve billion US dollars in loss. Looking just at the currency, not at what these companies are doing and not at global demand are very difficult environment for these companies to thrive in.

The new government here in Japan has said that it does not want to intervene as of yet into the currency market that a strong Yan would boost consumption at home but a strong yen certainly does hurt exporters trying to operate in a global environment. Later this week, the Tankan Survey which gauges² the sentiment of these large companies has come out. We’ll have to keep an eye on that to see exactly how these large companies in Japan are looking at what's happening with the currency.

Kyung Lah, CNN, Tokyo.

Vocabulary:

1. Tankan Survey : An economic survey of Japanese business issued by the central Bank of Japan, which it then uses to formulate³ monetary⁴ policy. The report is released four times a year in April, July, October and mid-December.

1 yen   

n. 日元；热望

参考例句：

• He wanted to convert his dollars into Japanese yen.他想将美元换成日币。
• He has a yen to be alone in a boat.他渴望独自呆在一条船上。

2 gauges   

n.规格( gauge的名词复数 )；厚度；宽度；标准尺寸v.（用仪器）测量( gauge的第三人称单数 )；估计；计量；划分

参考例句：

• A thermometer gauges the temperature. 温度计可测量温度。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The fuel gauges dropped swiftly. 燃料表指针迅速下降。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 formulate   

v.用公式表示；规划；设计；系统地阐述

参考例句：

• He took care to formulate his reply very clearly.他字斟句酌，清楚地做了回答。
• I was impressed by the way he could formulate his ideas.他陈述观点的方式让我印象深刻。

4 monetary   

adj.货币的，钱的；通货的；金融的；财政的

参考例句：

• The monetary system of some countries used to be based on gold.过去有些国家的货币制度是金本位制的。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。