Summary The dollar eased to 98.86 yen from 99.01 yen.
TOKYO (AFP) - The yen was trading firmer against the dollar in Asia on Thursday with few fresh market leads ahead of the Group of Seven meeting of finance chiefs starting Friday.
In morning Tokyo trade, the euro fetched $1.3157 and 130.12 yen against $1.3156 and 130.35 yen in US trade on Wednesday, when the single European currency gained ground after a surprisingly strong report on German industrial output in March.
The dollar eased to 98.86 yen from 99.01 yen.
The dollar-yen "may trade in a 98.60-99.40 range during Asian trading with no strong direction, with both the upside and downside limited," said Daisaku Ueno, senior forex strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley.
While last week's strong US jobs data helped push up the dollar, "we might need to wait for another round of strong non-farm payrolls figures to help push the pair above 100 yen," he said, adding that nevertheless the yen's weakening trend was still intact.
The Bank of Korea took market players by surprise mid-morning with an announcement that it would cut its base rate by 0.25 percentage points to 2.50 percent, amid fears of a slowdown in Asia's fourth largest economy.
The United States called on Europe Wednesday to further ease fiscal consolidation to avoid more economic damage, as finance chiefs from the world's leading economies readied to meet this weekend.
Europe's leaders have been successful in removing some of the more immediate risks in the eurozone crisis, a senior US Treasury official said in a briefing on the US view ahead of the meeting in the UK on Friday and Saturday.
"Now the focus needs to shift to boosting demand and employment, to avoid lasting damage to the economy," the official told reporters.
"It's important to recalibrate the pace of fiscal consolidation.... continued sharp fiscal consolidation risks undermining demand."
Currency analysts said the comments were not particularly new as they were in line with comments made by US officials after the meeting of Group of 20 major economies in April.
