BOJ May Have Sold $58.97 Billion in Yen-Buying Intervention

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) may have sold as much as $58.97 billion in yen-buying intervention, according to central bank data. This move is part of repeated efforts to stem the yen's weakness.

The BOJ's projection for money market conditions suggests an 8.2 trillion yen net outflow of funds, which can offer an estimate of the size of any intervention. The yen-buying activity involves the BOJ soaking up the currency from markets.

Japan conducted a yen-buying, dollar-selling intervention in New York on Thursday, its first such foray in three months, as the currency's slump to four-decade lows threatened to worsen living costs hit by the Iran war-driven energy shock. The move came ahead of the conclusion of the BOJ's policy meeting.

The central bank later kept interest rates steady but signalled it would continue tightening. Market players expect rate hikes at a faster pace, as the slow pace of rate hikes has been blamed for pushing the yen to a 40-year low.