Forex
Bessent Presses Japan for Rate Hikes at G20 Amid Yen Weakness
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged Japan to raise interest rates at a G20 meeting in Asheville, North Carolina. He held separate meetings with Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama and BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda on the 30th and 31st.
Bessent emphasized that Japan needs to signal fiscal sustainability and remove obstacles to rate hikes. The yen has struggled to rebound and is currently hovering near ¥160.
The dollar-yen exchange rate briefly spiked to ¥160.20 in Tokyo foreign exchange trading, the weakest level since July's joint intervention. Japanese authorities deployed a record $96.4 billion over the past month to buy yen, but failed to reverse the trend.