Dollar falls in Asia on selling by Japanese exporters

TOKYO (AFP) - The dollar fell against the yen in Asian trade on Thursday as Japanese exporters sold the greenback to close their quarterly accounts, dealers said.

The dollar was changing hands at 90.81 yen in Tokyo afternoon trade, down from 91.30 in New York late on Wednesday.

The euro was almost unchanged at 1.4730 dollars against 1.4732 while falling to 133.77 yen from 134.55.

Investors are willing to push the US unit below 90 yen, dealers said.

"The dollar apparently is getting little support at levels below 90 yen, meaning drops in the greenback can be very rapid once it breaks below that mark," Nomura Securities dealer Hiroshi Maeba told Dow Jones Newswires.

But the dollar may hold above that level this week because speculators are having qualms about selling the currency actively ahead of the Group of 20 nations' two-day summit in Pittsburgh that will begin Thursday, dealers said.

"Some players are concerned that officials there may send signals that they are worried about exchange rates," said Yuji Saito, head of foreign exchange at Societe Generale.

Traders were also digesting remarks from the US Federal Reserve, which acknowledged the US economy was emerging from prolonged recession but maintained its near-zero interest rate and trillion-plus dollar effort to support the fragile recovery.

The Fed is "concerned not to cut short the recovery with an early tightening," said Rabobank International economist Adrian Foster.

Against Asian currencies, the dollar rose to 32.40 Taiwan dollars from 32.36 a day earlier, to 47.50 Philippine pesos from 47.42, and to 1.4145 Singapore dollars from 1.4109.

It held steady at 1,194.50 South Korean won and at 33.56 Thai baht while falling to 9,640.00 Indonesian rupiah from 9,705.00.