Japan refuses to comment on intervention after yen depreciation, which exceeded 150 units per dollar – Observer

The Japanese government refused this Wednesday to comment on possible intervention after the yen briefly exceed 150 units per dollar for the first time since October 2022.

“We refrain from making any comments,” Japanese Deputy Finance Minister Masato Kanda told the media after the yen briefly surpassed the psychological barrier of 150 units per dollar in the foreign exchange market overnight. of Tuesday.

Kanda said, however, that the Japanese government “remains firmly committed to responding appropriately to excessive exchange rate fluctuationswithout excluding any available means”.

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This new depreciation of the yen, whose progressive decline since last year has generated concern in the country, came after the publication of data on job offers in the United States, more positive than expected and which led to an increase in the sale of Japanese currency.

This fall has been associated with the growing divergence between the rise in interest rates in the US and the monetary policies of the Bank of Japan (BoJ), which favors the maintenance of stimulus measures, including ultra-low rates.

In September 2022, the Japanese government carried out the first currency intervention since 2011 with the aim of supporting the value of the national currency and the first to involve the purchase of yen since 1998.

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A weak yen benefits the overseas turnover of Japanese companies, which see their remittances inflated when they repatriate them, and improves the competitiveness of their products, but it also has a negative impact on national accounts by making imports more expensive in a country that is highly dependent on goods from abroad. During the first hour of trading in Tokyo, the yen traded between 148.95 and 149.23 units per dollar.