Action against disorderly yen moves

TOKYO: Japan will continue to closely watch the foreign exchange market and take all measures against disorderly currency moves, Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said yesterday after acknowledging that Tokyo had intervened recently to stem yen weakness.

Suzuki’s comments followed the release last Friday of Finance Ministry data that showed authorities spent 9.79 trillion yen (US$62.2bil) intervening in the market to support the yen over the past month.

“The intervention was conducted to address excessive volatility driven by speculative moves,” Suzuki said. — Reuters