Yen Slumps on BoJ Intervention

The Japanese yen dropped heavily against everything on the Forex market today, following the currency intervention by the country’s central bank.

The yen declined most notably against the US dollar, demonstrating the biggest daily drop since October 2008. It also fell to the lowest rate against the euro since July 11 and reached the price minimum against the Great Britain pound since July 5.

The Bank of Japan followed the footsteps of the Swiss National Bank and intervened the currency market today, increasing the amounts of yen it purchases in order to hold down the currency appreciation:

…to enhance monetary easing by increasing the total size of the Asset Purchase Program by about 10 trillion yen2 from about 40 trillion yen to about 50 trillion yen.

The market analysts believe that the success of this measure will depend on how persistent the country’s central bank will be. To keep the yen down, they’ll have to continue with similar measures. One-time event just won’t do it for something as bullish as the Japanese yen.

USD/JPY rose from 76.97 to 79.78 as of 12:37 GMT today, reaching as high as 80.23 (the maximum since July 12) earlier. EUR/JPY went up from 110.54 to 113.09. GBP/JPY advanced from 126.54 to 130.21 today.

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