By Tetsushi Kajimoto
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s currency interventions have been stealth operations in order to maximise effects of its forays into the market, Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said on Tuesday, after the government spent a record $43 billion supporting the yen last month.
Japanese officials have so far remained tight-lipped on exactly when they intervened in the market in October. Full details of the intervention moves will be available when quarterly intervention data is published, due early this month.
“There are times when we announce intervention right after we do it and there are times when we don’t,” Suzuki said. “We are doing this to maximise effects to smoothe sharp currency fluctuations.”
“We cannot tolerate excessive currency moves by speculative trading,” Suzuki told reporters.
“We are closely watching currency market moves with a high sense of urgency and we’ll respond appropriately to excessive fluctuations.”
“Intervention had certain effects,” he added.
Japan spent 6.3499 trillion yen ($42.7 billion) on currency intervention in October to prop up the yen, the finance ministry said on Monday, leaving investors keen for clues about how much further the authorities might step in to soften the yen’s sharp fall.
A steep drop in the yen to a 32-year low of 151.94 to the dollar on Oct. 21 likely triggered the intervention, followed by another round on Oct. 24. In September, Japan conducted its first yen-buying intervention since 1998.
The yen has since the Oct. 21 intervention been moving in a range below the psychological threshold of 150 yen versus the dollar. On Tuesday, the Japanese currency was changing hands at 148.70, little changed from the previous session.
($1 = 148.6100 yen)
(Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Kim Coghill and Kenneth Maxwell)
