Foreign exchange doesn’t determine long-term planning, Nissan COO says

By Pete Sweeney

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese automaker Nissan Motor Co Ltd doesn’t make its mid- or long-term decisions based on fluctuations in the foreign exchange market, its chief operating officer said on Thursday, as the yen hovered near 24-year lows.

The comments from Ashwani Gupta come amid a sharp sell-off in the yen this year against the U.S. dollar, which has sparked warnings from the country’s top policymakers and concern about Japan Inc’s ability to plan for the future.

On Wednesday, authorities issued their clearest signal yet that they were not comfortable with recent sharp declines in the currency and were preparing for intervention, though analysts were sceptical such a move would arrest the yen’s slide for long as the U.S. dollar keeps climbing.[FRX/]

Foreign exchange was the last factor in “the business chain,” when planning, Gupta said in a Reuters Newsmaker interview. “We don’t take our decisions, especially mid- and long-term decisions based on the foreign exchange rate,” he said.

Gupta also said that the automaker would be able to weather potential tighter regulations on clean cars in some countries because of its twin strategy of producing its “e-power”-type advanced hybrids and battery-electric vehicles.

(Reporting by Pete Sweeney; Editing by David Dolan, David Evans and Kim Coghill)

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