Japan followed Switzerland in seeking to stem appreciating exchange rates that threatened to damage export competitiveness, selling the yen and pledging to inject 10 trillion yen ($126 billion) in funds to the economy.
Japan acted alone in the market, while officials were in touch with other nations, Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda told reporters today. The Bank of Japan followed up with monetary stimulus that totaled double the amount pledged days after the March 11 earthquake. The yen weakened to 80 per dollar for the first time since July 12 at 10:58 a.m. in London.
