On Friday, Japan conducted yet another currency intervention in order to buy the yen after its fall to a 32-year minimum at the level of 152 per dollar. It has been the second purchase of the yen by the government this month.
The central bank of Japan continues to keep interest rates extremely low, in contrast to the global tendency of monetary policy tightening. The gap between rates in the U.S. and Japan is growing. In this regard, the Japanese government searches for other ways of supporting and strengthening the national currency, the exchange rate of which has decreased significantly in recent times.
After the dollar rose to 151.94 yen, the highest level since 1990, the intervention helped to get it down by more than 7 yen to its minimum of 144.50 yen.
On Saturday, the meeting of Prime Ministers of Japan, Fumio Kishida, and Australia, Anthony Albanese, was held. After this meeting, Kishida reiterated the country’s readiness to take the necessary measures against excessive forex volatility, highlighting that such levels are unacceptable.
However, the market is skeptical towards the Japanese strategy and its possibility to change the downtrend of national currency by single interventions, even taking into account the country’s foreign reserves of $1.33 trillion.