AFP/London

Europe’s main stock markets retreated yesterday while the dollar and euro rose against the yen as Group of 20 finance ministers met amid growing talk of “currency wars”.
Solid US industrial output and consumer sentiment data helped European stocks push into positive territory for a while in afternoon trading, but fell back as the closing bell approached.
London’s FTSE 100 index of leading companies ended flat at 6,337.07 points, with news that British retail sales sank 0.6% in January from December, instead of a forecasted 0.6% gain, weighing on sentiment.
Frankfurt’s DAX 30 shed 0.49% to 7,593.51 points, and in Paris the CAC 40 lost 0.25% to 3,660.37 points.
Madrid’s Ibex 35 index dropped 1.18% to 8,150.2 points and Milan’s FTSE MIB gave up 0.33% to 16,490 points.
In foreign exchange deals, the dollar rose to 93.65 yen from 92.79 yen late in New York on Thursday, and the
euro rose to ¥125.15 from ¥123.97.
The euro drifted up to $1.3363 from $1.3356. Gold prices eased to $1,612.25 an ounce from $1,646 on the London Bullion Market.
The yen is in focus as finance ministers and central bankers from the G20 leading economies begin two days of meetings in Moscow yesterday, as Tokyo comes under attack from Europe over its new approach to monetary policy.
The Bank of Japan, under pressure from the new government, last month unveiled a plan for unlimited monetary easing and a target for 2% inflation.
The moves, which had been expected, initiated a weakness in the yen and sparked charges of manipulation from around the world amid fears of a currency war where rival nations drive down their currencies to gain a trade advantage.
However, many analysts contend that other nations have also sought to push down the value of their currencies via monetary easing measures.
For example, many emerging nations have long argued that the US Federal Reserve’s monetary easing measures have in recent years weighed on the dollar and artificially boosted their own currencies, thereby hurting exports.
“The bottom line is that, in some guise or another, every major economy is in the process of devaluing their currency currently, so the net effect may turn out to be negligible,” said Matt Basi, a trader at CMC Markets.
“In real terms the Japanese are not doing anything new — or anything that isn’t being replicated in other economies. They’re just being more direct about it and more clear in their intentions,” he added.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged down 0.01% to 13,972.39 points, while the broad-based S&P 500 dipped 0.04% to 1,520.83 points, and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.03% to 3,197.81 points.
The Federal Reserve reported that US industrial production expanded at 1.9% in the final quarter of last year, much stronger than originally thought.
This suggests that the initial government estimate of a 0.1% contraction in the economy last quarter could be revised upward.