Japan bought yen at record pace in July - NHKニュース

Newly released data from the Japanese Finance Ministry show that the authorities engaged in a record spree of dollar-selling and yen-buying in late July to prop up the sagging Japanese currency.

The ministry says the intervention on July 30 totaled over 7.9 trillion yen, or 50.4 billion dollars at the current exchange rate. That was a single-day record going back to 1991, when such data were first released.

The government and the Bank of Japan also spent about 5.5 trillion yen on July 31, and over 1.8 trillion yen on August 3.

The operation on July 31 was the first coordinated yen-buying with the United States in 28 years.

Following the moves, the Japanese currency rose sharply on August 3. The dollar fell by more than seven yen into the 155 range at one point.