Japanese Housewives Cooling on Aussie Uridashi: Australia Credit

Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens has gone an interest-rate cut too far for Mrs. Watanabe, as Japan’s households look closer to home for returns.

Aussie uridashi sales slumped 71 percent to A$1.8 billion ($1.7 billion) this year, even as A$9.4 billion in such debt matures in 2013, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The currency accounted for 9.8 percent of bonds offered to Japanese individuals this year, compared with 64 percent for yen offerings and a total of 28 percent since 2006. Japanese investors cut Aussie debt holdings by a record 1.7 trillion yen ($17 billion) in the five months through March, Ministry of Finance data show.