Bessent Pressures BOJ for 'Decisive' Action to Combat Weak Yen

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged the Bank of Japan to take decisive action to combat the weak yen. In a meeting with BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda, Bessent emphasized the importance of sound monetary policy in anchoring inflation expectations and avoiding excessive exchange rate volatility.

The remarks come ahead of the BOJ's next meeting on September 17-18, where a rate hike is widely expected. The US joined Japan in a rare joint yen-buying intervention in July to prevent a selloff in the yen and Japanese government bonds from spilling over into global markets.

Bessent's comments effectively lock the BOJ into raising interest rates this month, with some analysts predicting that the bank will hike rates once every quarter. The recent spike in wholesale inflation due to rising import costs has added to price pressures and triggered warnings of an inflation overshoot from the BOJ.