TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said on Thursday the government will continue to take appropriate steps against excessive currency market volatility.
“We absolutely cannot tolerate excessively volatile moves driven by speculative trading,” Suzuki told parliament, speaking in the wake of the yen’s slide to a fresh 32-year low against the dollar to 149.91 in overnight trading. The greenback stood around 149.84 in early Asia trading on Thursday.
Markets are on high alert on whether Japan will intervene in the currency market again as the yen falls near the key psychological barrier of 150 to the dollar.
Earlier on Thursday, Suzuki told reporters he was closely watching the currency market with a sense of urgency.
The government, which holds jurisdiction over currency policy, spent 2.8 trillion yen ($19 billion) in dollar-selling, yen-buying intervention last month when authorities acted in the markets to prop up the yen for the first time since 1998.
($1 = 149.8700 yen)
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(Reporting by Kantaro Komiya and Leika Kihara; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim)