Japan intervened in the currency market today for the first time since 1998 to shore up the battered yen.
The move came hours after the Bank of Japan's decision to maintain super-low interest rates to support economic growth, bucking a global tide of monetary tightening by central banks fighting to rein in soaring inflation. As widely expected today, the Bank of Japan kept unchanged its -0.1% target for short-term interest rates, and 0% for the 10-year government bond yield.
Japan's central bank also decided to phase out a pandemic-relief loan scheme and instead expand a liquidity operation targeting a broader range of corporate funding-needs. Japan's core consumer inflation quickened to 2.8% in August, exceeding the Bank of Japan's 2% target for a fifth month in a row, as price pressure from raw materials and yen falls broadened.