By Leika Kihara
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato and U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen mentioned latest exchange-rate strikes, amongst different matters, in a bilateral assembly held on Thursday, a senior Japanese finance ministry official mentioned.
“The 2 sides mentioned exchange-rate strikes, and confirmed the necessity for the US and Japan to speak intently,” Atsushi Mimura, Japan’s vice finance minister for worldwide affairs, advised reporters.
A weak yen has turn out to be a supply of concern for Japanese policymakers because it hurts households and retailers by pushing up the price of uncooked materials imports.
“We now have just lately seen one-sided, sharp strikes in forex charges,” mentioned Mimura, who oversees Japan’s forex coverage.
“It is fascinating for trade charges to maneuver in a method that displays fundamentals. We will probably be more and more vigilant to forex strikes, together with these pushed by hypothesis,” he mentioned in Washington on the sidelines of the G20 and IMF conferences.
The greenback climbed above 153 yen for the primary time in almost three months on Wednesday as receding expectations of huge rate of interest cuts by the Federal Reserve drew renewed consideration to the broad fee divergence between U.S. and Japan.
The greenback stood at 151.83 yen on Thursday.
