‘Japan brought forward emergency yen meet to maximise market impact’

TOKYO: Japanese monetary authorities made a last-minute decision to bring forward to Wednesday an emergency meeting on the weak yen that was originally scheduled for Thursday, to maximise the impact of arresting sharp yen falls, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

The meeting, consisting of executives from the Ministry of Finance (MOF), Bank of Japan and Financial Services Agency, is typically held in times of market turbulence partly as a gesture of authorities’ alarm of unwelcome, sharp currency moves. As the meeting is considered as a sign Tokyo is moving a step closer to intervening in the currency market, traders were on the lookout for any signs it could be held again as the yen slid toward three-decade lows against the dollar.

The MOF remained mum on the timing of the meeting as it calibrated the right moment. The announcement came less than an hour before the meeting began on Wednesday evening.

The meeting, originally planned to be held on Thursday, was brought forward to Wednesday to maximise the psychological impact on markets, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

“It worked,” the source said on the decision to push forward the timing of the meeting. “If we waited until Thursday, it could have caused the yen to plunge.”

The timing proved crucial as the yen was accelerating its pace of decline to hit a 34-year low of 151.97 to the dollar late Wednesday afternoon.