Japan’s top currency official said authorities will consider all options for the foreign exchange market, and they’re ready to respond to any event after the yen fell to its lowest level versus the dollar since 1990.
“Whether this involves currency intervention or not, we authorities are prepared for all situations all the time,” Vice Finance Minister for International Affairs Masato Kanda told reporters Thursday morning.
The yen fell as low as ¥153.24 to the dollar after a key U.S. price gauge showed inflation in March was faster than expected, an outcome that pushed back expectations for rate cuts by the Federal Reserve this year.
Kanda said the benefits of the weak yen are decreasing, and movements in the market have been rapid of late.
Japan intervened in markets three times in 2022 to prop up the yen after the currency weakened to ¥151.95 against the dollar.
Since the Bank of Japan last month conducted the nation’s first interest rate hike in 17 years, the yen had mostly stayed in a range around ¥151 to the dollar. The U.S. consumer price data released overnight pushed the currency through the ¥152 threshold and beyond to a fresh 34-year low.
In his comments Thursday, Kanda said excessive currency movements are bad for the economy. He stopped short of warning that authorities are ready to take bold measures, among the most direct references to intervention in the ministry’s verbal intervention playbook.