Washington, Sept. 15 (Jiji Press)–U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday that the U.S. side spent a “nominal amount” in its joint currency market intervention with Japan in July to rectify the yen’s rapid weakening against the dollar. In a testimony before the House of Representatives’ Financial Services Committee, Bessent said, “A stronger yen is better for American exports.” “A stronger yen means that the Japanese government will not have to sell U.S. assets to finance foreign currency interventions,” he added. In late July, Japanese and U.S. currency authorities conducted their first concerted yen-buying intervention in about 28 years, highlighting their stances of not tolerating an excessive weakening of the Japanese currency. Japan’s Finance Ministry was “very transparent with us,” Bessent said over the joint market action. By stressing its support for Japan regarding the intervention, Washington apparently hopes to prevent interest rate spikes caused by the yen’s depreciation from spreading to the United States. With U.S. midterm elections set for November, the administration of President Donald Trump faces a key task of keeping interest rates under control in light of its policy focus on affordability. The U.S. Treasury Department has taken a bold step of significantly increasing buybacks of long-term U.S. government bonds to suppress long-term interest rates. While Bessent emphasized in the testimony that the measure has achieved success, interest rates continue to climb amid inflation concerns and ballooning government debts. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
