According to a report published by the Wall Street Journal and seen by Sky News Arabia, Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato said in a press conference on Friday: “We are monitoring developments in the currency market, including speculative movements.”
The report revealed that the minister used the phrase “extremely” to describe the impact on the yen DollarIt may be interpreted as a hint that intervention to bring about balance is imminent.
The Finance Minister said that the yen’s recent weakness appears to be “one-sided and rapid,” and promised to take appropriate measures against such sharp moves.
The official comments came at a time when the value of… Yen To the lowest level in three months against the dollar, which raised an alarm to the market about a possible intervention to buy the yen by the Japanese government.
The renewed weakness of the Japanese currency has raised concerns about rising import prices, which has also led to speculation about additional interest rate hikes by the Bank of Japan in the near term.
The dollar rose briefly to around 154.70 yen after Trump won the US presidential election earlier this week.
The possibility of higher tariffs has resulted in the era Trump To revive concerns about inflation in USwhich may ultimately affect the pace of reducing interest rates at a bank Federal Reserve in the future.
said Tomohisa Fujiki, strategist atCitigroup“, the dollar pair” is rapidly approaching 155 yen. Exceeding this level may increase the possibility of further intervention in the foreign exchange market by the Ministry of Finance of Japan, and the Bank of Japan may also respond by raising interest rates.”
The dollar was last at 152.80 yen.
And raise Central Bank of Japan The key interest rate was raised to 0.25 percent at the end of July after the yen weakened to about 162 per dollar earlier that month.
Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said at the time that rising import prices caused by a weak yen was one of the reasons behind the decision.
The rise in import prices has interfered with the recovery in consumption Japanwhich is a key component of the so-called virtuous cycle of high wages and stable inflation that the Bank of Japan is trying to create.
The government also tried to support the Japanese currency by purchasing the yen and selling the dollar worth 3.168 trillion yen on July 11, equivalent to about 20.71 billion dollars, and operations worth 2.367 trillion yen the next day, Ministry of Finance data showed on Friday.
