A 10,000 yen note in a Tokyo supermarket earlier this year.
Image:
Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg News
TOKYO-Japan said on Thursday it intervened in currency markets to sell dollars and buy yen, the first such intervention in 24 years, to stem the currency’s recent sharp decline.
Finance Minister Masato Kanda confirmed the intervention in brief comments to reporters. He said Tokyo had previously taken decisive action to prevent the yen’s devaluation from being described as undesirable.
Earlier on Thursday, the yen fell as low as 145.87 to the dollar, its lowest level since 1998. Traders have been buying and selling dollars this year because of the difference in interest rates between Japan and the United States. Constant rate increases. The Bank of Japan reiterated on Thursday that it is sticking to its ultra-easy monetary policy.
In the wake of the government’s intervention, the yen has rebounded slightly and was trading slightly higher than 143 yen to the dollar by late afternoon Tokyo time.
Thursday’s incident marked the first time since 1998 that the Japanese government intervened in currency markets by buying the yen. Since then there have been instances when it sold the yen to prevent what it saw as excessive appreciation of the Japanese currency.
write down Chieko Tsuneoka at chieko.Tsuneoka@dowjones.com
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
