TOKYO — Japan spent 5.92 trillion yen (about $41 billion) on April 29 to slow the currency’s rapid fall against the US dollar, a record single-day yen-buying intervention, local media reported.
Quarterly data from the Finance Ministry showed the single-day record was followed by another 3.87 trillion yen two days later, marking the first time that official data confirmed dates and amounts of yen-buying, dollar-selling operations made between April and June, Kyodo News reported.
The two rounds of massive dollar-selling intervention, totaled 9.79 trillion yen, helped drive up the yen by 5 percent from a 34-year low of 160.24 per US dollar, but failed to arrest the yen’s downward slide, the report said.
After hitting a then 34-year high above 160 yen, the US dollar plunged about 5 yen in a short span of time to 154 yen in New York on April 29. On May 1, the greenback plunged to the 153 yen zone from the 157 yen range.
The yen then resumed its downturn and sank to a fresh 37-year low in early July, with the US dollar nearing 162 yen, the Japanese currency’s weakest since December 1986, where Japanese authorities likely embarked on another round of yen-buying, Kyodo News said.
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