The yen continued to decline against the US dollar after the Bank of Japan kept the benchmark interest rate unchanged. The exchange rate of the yen against the US dollar once fell 0.9% to 160.88. The Bank of Japan's interest rate decision was in line with the expectations of all 52 economists surveyed by the media. During the New York trading session on Thursday, the exchange rate of the yen rose 3.3% against the US dollar, the biggest one-day increase since December 2023, but it regained more than half of the increase during the Asian session on Friday. A person familiar with the market said that the Japanese authorities interfered in the foreign exchange market, while the US authorities made an exchange rate inquiry at around 2:30 a.m. Tokyo time. “The intervention of the Japanese authorities before the Bank of Japan's monetary policy meeting may be to amplify the impact in an unexpected way, in contrast to the April intervention in which the more transparent market was easier to recognize,” said Rinto Maruyama, senior foreign exchange and interest rate strategist at SMBC Nikko Securities, adding that the sharp rise in Japanese and US long-term bond yields was “a key factor for Japan to interfere with the foreign exchange market and the US in exchange rate inquiries.”

The yen continued to decline against the US dollar after the Bank of Japan kept the benchmark interest rate unchanged. The exchange rate of the yen against the US dollar once fell 0.9% to 160.88. The Bank of Japan's interest rate decision was in line with the expectations of all 52 economists surveyed by the media. During the New York trading session on Thursday, the exchange rate of the yen rose 3.3% against the US dollar, the biggest one-day increase since December 2023, but it regained more than half of the increase during the Asian session on Friday. A person familiar with the market said that the Japanese authorities interfered in the foreign exchange market, while the US authorities made an exchange rate inquiry at around 2:30 a.m. Tokyo time. “The intervention of the Japanese authorities before the Bank of Japan's monetary policy meeting may be to amplify the impact in an unexpected way, in contrast to the April intervention in which the more transparent market was easier to recognize,” said Rinto Maruyama, senior foreign exchange and interest rate strategist at SMBC Nikko Securities, adding that the sharp rise in Japanese and US long-term bond yields was “a key factor for Japan to interfere with the foreign exchange market and the US in exchange rate inquiries.”