TOKYO (MNI) – Japan’s foreign reserves hit another record high of
$1.118 trillion at the end of October, surpassing the previous record
high of $1.110 trillion marked at end-September, the Ministry of Finance
said on Monday.
In October, the Japanese government didn’t conduct yen-selling
intervention but the foreign reserves appeared to have been pushed up by
interest payments on Japan’s holdings of U.S. Treasuries.
In September, the reserves were pushed up by the large-scale forex
intervention to sell yen for the U.S. currency that Japan conducted for
the first time in over six years in a bid to prevent the yen’s rapid
rise from hurting exporter profits and thus a sustained economic
recovery.
The country’s forex reserves remain the second largest in the
world, next to China’s which are estimated at $2.65 trillion at the end
of September.
The biggest changes in Japan’s forex reserves usually occur when
the Bank of Japan intervenes in the currency market on behalf of the MOF
to prevent a steep appreciation or depreciation of the yen.
Foreign exchange reserves consist of securities and deposits
denominated in foreign currencies, International Monetary Fund reserves,
IMF special drawing rights (SDRs) and gold.
At the end of last month, Japan’s foreign currency reserves stood
at $1.059 trillion, IMF reserves at $4.61 billion, SDRs at $21.04
billion, gold at $33.13 billion and other reserve assets at $445
million.
tokyo@marketnews.com
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[TOPICS: M$J$$$,M$A$$$,MAJDS$]
