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TOKYO -Japan’s policymakers continued to warn investors on Wednesday against selling the yen, as the dollar rose to a fresh 24-year high on the Japanese currency while hurdles to directly intervene remain high.
The U.S. currency rose to 146.35 yen, a level not seen since August 1998 during the Asian financial crisis, moving above levels that triggered intervention by Japanese authorities last month to stem excessive yen weakening.
Currency intervention is costly and could fail to influence the yen’s value in the huge global foreign exchange market. Investors also doubt the efficacy of intervention given that the dollar’s strength has been driven by interest rate differentials due to widely divergent U.S. and Japanese monetary policy.
The yen was trading around 146.20 to the dollar on Wednesday afternoon as traders braced for U.S. inflation data and its implications on future U.S. rate hikes.
“We are closely watching foreign exchange moves with a high sense of urgency, and ready to take appropriate steps on excess moves,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters.
