Japan has 'free hand' in dealing with excessive yen moves, finance minister says

Japan has a free hand in dealing with excessive moves in the yen, Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama said on Tuesday, issuing the strongest warning to date on Tokyo’s readiness to intervene in the currency market to arrest sharp declines in the currency.

“They are speculative and does not reflect fundamentals,” Katayama told a news conference on the yen’s declines after Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda’s news conference last week.

The government will take appropriate action against excessive moves, she added, signalling Japan’s readiness to step into the market to prop up the yen. The remarks mostly echo those she made in an interview with Bloomberg on Monday.

The dollar fell against the yen after Katayama’s remarks on Tuesday and was last down 0.42 percent at 156.34.

A weak yen has become a source of headache for Japanese policymakers as it pushes up import prices and broader inflation, thereby increasing households’ cost of living.

The yen fell after Ueda’s news conference following the BOJ’s decision to raise interest rates to levels unseen in 30 years, as markets saw his comments signaling the bank was in no rush to raise rates further.

Reuters