The Japanese government has confirmed that it intervened unannounced in foreign exchange markets to weaken the yen last year, the first time it had done so since 2004.
Finance ministry data released yesterday showed that Japan carried out Y1.02tn ($13.3bn) worth of unannounced intervention during the first four days of November after selling a record Y8.07tn on October 31, when the yen climbed to a postwar high of Y75.35 against the dollar.
The “stealth intervention” had been widely und-erstood, given discrepancies between the rise in yen balances implied by Bank of Japan reserve balance data and the Y9.09tn of yen selling the ministry had disclosed for the period between October 28 and November 28.