Japan Forex Reserves Fall by 79,575 M. Dlrs in Aug.

Tokyo, Sept. 7 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s foreign exchange reserves at the end of August fell by 79,575 million dollars from a month before to 1,207,524 million dollars, marking the fourth straight month of decline, the Finance Ministry said Monday. The reserves went down about 6.2 pct, with both the decline in value and the percentage drop being the largest since comparable data became available in April 2000. The decrease reflected yen-buying, dollar-selling currency market interventions conducted by the Japanese government and the Bank of Japan in late July. It was also attributable to lower market valuations of bonds held in the reserves as interest rates rose. This was partly offset by higher valuations for gold holdings following a rise in gold prices. Of the total foreign exchange reserves, securities holdings, including U.S. Treasuries, fell by 87,773 million dollars to 839,559 million dollars, the largest drop on record. Deposits declined by 6,868 million dollars to 155,417 million dollars. A Finance Ministry official declined to disclose whether funds for the interventions were mainly raised through sales of foreign bonds. The ministry said last month that Japanese authorities spent 15,399.3 billion yen in foreign exchange market interventions from July 30 to Aug. 26. The yen surged by nearly 5 yen against the dollar on July 30 after intervention by the Japanese government and the BOJ to support the Japanese currency. On July 31, Japanese and U.S. authorities conducted a coordinated yen-buying intervention for the first time in about 28 years. The yen also experienced a sharp rise on Aug. 3. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]