Japan fin min Kato with verbal intervention on yen

  • No comment on FX levels
  • Recently seeing one-sided, sharp moves
  • Important for currencies to move in a stable manner reflecting fundamentals
  • Will take appropriate action against excessive moves
  • Concerned about recent FX moves, including those driven by speculation

****

Kato seems to have taken advice that saying hot words like:

  • one-sided,
  • sharp moves,
  • speculation

will encourage market participants to take his threats more seriously. Unfortunately he says them a lot, prompting a 'boy who cried wolf' response. No one cares too much.

USD/JPY is around 157.85 or so, barely off its session high.

jpy note