MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th September, 2022) Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki on Wednesday for the first time admitted the possibility of intervention in the Currency market as the national currency Yen continues to lose value.
"We have to respond without excluding any options," Suzuki told reporters, as quoted by the Japanese news agency Kyodo.
When asked whether such options include government interventions in the currency market, the minister said that it is "OK to think that is the case."
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, during the morning briefing earlier in the day, made it clear that the government would not rule out such a decision if the situation with the sharp depreciation of the yen continues.
On Wednesday morning, the yen fell to its lowest and traded at 144.9 against the US Dollar for the first time since August 1998. The fall is explained by significant differences in the approaches of the US and Japanese central banks to monetary policy. The US Federal Reserve continues to increase the interest rate, while Japan, on the contrary, keeps the rate negative.
The US dollar on Tuesday rose against world currencies, including the yen, following the release of data on the US annual inflation, which grew by 8.3% in August, above the 8.1% forecast. According to Kyodo, the US Federal Reserve is expected to go ahead with another rate hike.
Following Suzuki's remarks about the possibility of an intervention in the currency market, the US dollar fell against the yen, trading in the lower 143 range.
