Analyst who foresaw yen fall expects more losses ahead

Singapore

THE strategist who defied Japan's biggest investors to correctly predict the yen's weakness in 2016 is forecasting more losses for the currency in the new year.

The yen is set to slump to 125 against the dollar in 2017, with little chance of a sustained gain past 115, as the Federal Reserve's policy tightening widens the interest rate differential between US and Japan, said Mansoor Mohi-uddin, a strategist at NatWest Markets, a unit of Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc. The forecast shows that Mr Mansoor, who previously estimated a trading range of 110 to 120 for the yen versus the greenback, has turned more bearish.