Japan’s foreign exchange reserves fell by $14 billion in April, a decline that reflects a decline in the value of foreign securities rather than interventions in the market.
The country’s foreign exchange reserves fell to $1.14 trillion in April, largely due to a drop in foreign securities holdings to $978 billion from $995 billion the month before, according to a Treasury Department report Thursday. Securities holdings were expected to decline due to a decline in the market value of foreign assets, including government bonds, as interest rates rose.
The data comes with evidence already pointing to two recent foreign exchange market interventions by Japan to support the yen. The first step came at the end of April, after the currency recorded a rate of 160 against the dollar for the first time since 1990. The suspected intervention was probably not accounted for in the reserves data until early May.
