The Kishida administration must address the price increases, or face "a fall in its approval rating," says Kumano. People across Japan are feeling the effects, with shoppers complaining about price hikes. If the currency exchange rate goes from 115 yen against the dollar to, say, 145 yen, that pushes up import prices by about 30%." Yen-based import prices are, on average, 41.8% higher than last year.Įconomist Kumano Hideo notes, "The yen started drastically weakening from March. The intervention came as people in Japan were suffering from higher import prices due to the weaker yen. Information on the amount spent on each day within that period will be released in November, but if it had all been spent on September 22, that would make it Japan's largest currency intervention to date. Japan spent approximately 2.84 trillion yen, or 19.6 billion dollars, intervening in the currency markets from August 30 to September 28. Finance Ministry Vice Minster Kanda Masato revealed soon after that Japan had intervened by buying the yen for the first time since 1998, clarifying, "The government has just taken decisive action." Then, the dollar-yen pair suddenly reversed course: going from 145 to 140. The yen lost ground against the dollar past 145, a threshold not crossed since 1998, as Kuroda continued his news conference. With the widening monetary policy divergence highlighted between Japan and other major central banks, the yen slid further the Japanese currency had, up to that point, already lost about 20% of its value in 2022 against the dollar as many central banks had tightened policy earlier in the year. Rather, we will further loosen policy if needed." Not only did both of those things happen, but BOJ Governor Kuroda Haruhiko reiterated his strong commitment to easing, saying at his news conference following the policy meeting, "The Bank of Japan will not raise rates for the foreseeable future. It was anticipated the Swiss National Bank would pull its key rate into the positive, while the BOJ would not change its ultra-loose policy and be left as the only country with negative interest rates. ![]() The US Federal Reserve had just raised its key interest rate by 0.75 percentage points, and released a projection on future hikes that was more aggressive than the version released three months earlier.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |