TOKYO: The yen climbed against the dollar and euro on Monday after hitting five-year lows last week, but analysts said the rebound will likely only be short-lived.

In afternoon Tokyo trade, the dollar bought 104.30 yen, compared with 104.85 yen in New York Friday, and well off the 105.41 yen range seen on December 30 -- the greenback´s strongest level since October 2008.The euro also slipped to 141.55 yen from 142.44 yen in US trade, after hitting 145.69 yen last Monday -- also its best since October 2008. The single currency fetched $1.3572, against $1.3586.Tokyo´s big-spending and easy money policies, aimed at kickstarting the Japanese economy, helped send the yen down by about one-quarter against the dollar since late 2012, while the euro has also benefited from an improvement in the eurozone outlook.

The weaker dollar and profit-taking sent Tokyo´s Nikkei-225 stock index down 2.35 percent Monday.

"We´re seeing some risk-off yen buying at the moment as the Nikkei falls, but the general momentum for the (dollar-yen rate) should still be up," Junichi Ishikawa, market analyst at IG Securities in Tokyo, told Dow Jones Newswires.

Investors will be keeping a close eye on US payrolls data at the end of the week after the Federal Reserve´s announcement last month that it would cut its bond buying programme by $10 billion to $75 billion a month in January.

The pullback had hinged on a signs of a firm recovery in the world´s biggest economy, and there is now speculation that the Fed may announce a further reduction at its January meeting.

SOURCE: AFP