USD/JPY: One can only hope that the MOF officials do not overestimate their abilities – Commerzbank

USD/JPY is at 145. Economists at Commerzbank analyze how the MOF (the Ministry of Finance) could stop the Yen sell-off.

No institution in the world has as much experience with interventions as the MOF

No institution in the world has as much experience with interventions as the MOF. However, their intervention experience mainly consists of preventing an excessively fast JPY appreciation, i.e. weakening the Yen artificially. This experience is of little use in the current situation when it is about strengthening the Yen artificially. Because all FX reserves are finite this issue is infinitely more difficult to solve than the one in which the MOF’s expertise lies. 

One can only hope that the MOF officials are aware of this and do not overestimate their abilities.