Former governor of the Bank of Japan Haruhiko Kuroda: Intervention actions are unlikely to have a lasting impact on the yen.

Haruhiko Kuroda, former head of the Bank of Japan, said on Wednesday that recent interventions in the foreign exchange market may have prevented the Japanese yen from falling below the 160 level against the US dollar, but it is unlikely to have a lasting impact on supporting the yen. Kuroda said at a seminar that only when foreign exchange intervention deals a huge blow to speculators, or its intensity is enough to reverse market sentiment, will it have a long-term impact. "Japanese authorities took decisive action against excessive depreciation of the yen this time. But it is difficult to expect this measure to have a lasting impact on the yen," Kuroda said. Prior to serving as head of the Bank of Japan, he was a finance ministry official in charge of Japan's exchange rate policy. "Recent interventions have indeed played a certain role in preventing the yen from falling below the 160 level against the US dollar, otherwise the yen would have fallen further," he said. "But the impact of interventions usually does not last long." Kuroda said at the seminar, "I believe that based on Japan's economic fundamentals, the yen/dollar exchange rate is considered balanced around 120-130." The dollar was around 157.80 against the yen on Wednesday.