TOKYO – Japan’s top currency diplomat on Oct 7 issued a warning against speculative moves on the foreign exchange market as the yen fell below 149 per US dollar.
“We will monitor currency market moves, including speculative trading, with a sense of urgency,” Vice-Minister of Finance for International Affairs Atsushi Mimura told reporters, reviving a verbal warning tactic that his predecessor Masato Kanda frequently used.
Mr Mimura declined to comment on the specifics of the current market situation.
Separately, newly minted Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato said the government would monitor how rapid currency moves could potentially impact the economy and would take action if necessary.
“The government will consider what action should be taken while monitoring the impacts,” Mr Kato said in an interview with a small group of reporters on Oct 7.
The yen depreciated to 149.10 versus the dollar in early trading, the weakest since Aug 16, after a surprisingly strong US jobs report for September led traders to cut bets that the Federal Reserve will make further large interest rate cuts.
Against the Singapore dollar, the yen was trading at 113.8328, up 0.14 per cent from its close on Oct 4.
Japan last conducted yen-buying intervention in late July to support its currency after it tumbled to a 38-year low below 161 per dollar.
The yen has also been under pressure since new Japanese Premier Shigeru Ishiba stunned markets when he said the economy was not ready for further rate hikes, an apparent about-face from his previous support for the Bank of Japan’s (BOJ) unwinding decades of loose monetary policy.
In the Oct 7 interview, Mr Kato said the government would leave specific policy steps to the BOJ, when asked whether the policy rate should be maintained at 0.25 per cent.
“The government hopes that the
