Japanese Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso attends opening session of the ADB annual meeting in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, Japan May 6, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato
February 16, 2018
By Tetsushi Kajimoto
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso fired on Friday a warning shot against gains in the yen, saying he would respond appropriately to currency fluctuations after the dollar hit a 15-month low against the Japanese currency.
Aso made the comment in an apparent attempt to play down a remark he made in parliament on Thursday when he stated he did not see the yen’s current moves as strong or weak enough to warrant intervention.
The dollar fell to as low as 106.03 yen overnight, its lowest since November 2016 <JPY=>.
Some analysts said worries over the United States’s twin trade and budget deficits amid a government spending splurge and large corporate tax cuts were a factor behind dollar weakness.
“I’m not guiding currency policy with specific levels in mind… stability in the currency market is very important,” Aso told reporters after a cabinet meeting.
He reiterated that there was agreement among the Group of Seven and G20 nations that rapid currency swings and disorderly moves would hurt economies and financial markets.
“There was no change to our stance of ‘responding as appropriate when necessary’. I’ll continue to deal with currency market moves with a sense of urgency,” he added.
Aso did not use the word ‘intervention’ at Friday’s news conference.
The recent global market sell-off has increased investor appetite for the safe-haven yen.
A strong yen erodes profits at Japanese manufacturers and could hurt an otherwise buoyant economy, which posted an eighth straight quarter of growth in October-December.
(Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Eric Meijer)
