New York: Japanese financial authorities conducted yen-buying currency market intervention, sending the dollar temporarily below 146.50 yen from just under 152 yen in New York trading Friday.

There are reports that the dollar changed hands below 145 yen briefly in electronic trading. The U.S. currency later trimmed its losses and stood at 147.74-84 yen at 5 p.m., down from 150.10-20 yen at the same time Thursday.

The intervention preceded the Bank of Japan’s two-day Policy Board meeting from Thursday.

The previous time Japan stepped into the currency market was Sept. 22, when it carried out its biggest yen-buying intervention on record.

In New York, the dollar hit a fresh 32-year high of 151.94 yen Friday morning on speculation for a wider gap between Japanese and U.S. interest rates before tumbling due to the intervention.

At a news conference in Tokyo earlier Friday, Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki gave a fresh warning against the yen’s recent rapid fall, saying that such moves are “undesirable.”

Meanwhile, BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda told a conference in Tokyo that the bank will maintain its current monetary easing policy, reinforcing the speculation about the interest rate gap.

At the time of the previous intervention, in which Japan bought 2.8 trillion yen, the dollar fell as much as over 5 yen from above 145.50 yen.

The size of intervention this time is likely to be similar to or even bigger than the previous time.

In the small hours of Saturday Japan time, Vice Finance Minister for International Affairs Masato Kanda told reporters that he cannot say whether Japan conducted yen-buying intervention.

This is different from the previous time, when financial officials including Kanda confirmed the launch of intervention.

JIJI Press