Japan to vow coordination with US on weak yen in historic battle
FXY•Weak yen pressure and policy signals
Japan has been struggling to curb a relentless drop in the yen that pushes up import prices and stokes broader inflation, hitting households' wallets and Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's public approval ratings.
Japan may have sold as much as $58.97 billion to buy yen when it intervened in New York markets on Thursday, Bank of Japan data indicated, followed by another suspected foray into the market on Friday.
On Friday, the U.S. Treasury told a number of banks it too might intervene in the yen market, a source told Reuters, while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent — who had said the yen “seems very undervalued” — had a handwritten “To Do” list at a cabinet meeting that said, “Buy Japanese Yen (JPY) $5-10 bil”, a Reuters photo showed.
In line with Bessent's repeated calls for higher Japanese interest rates, the Bank of Japan on Friday offered its most explicit signal to date of an early rate hike, even as it kept monetary policy steady.
