Takatoshi Ito is currently an academic at Columbia University academic:
- was deputy vice minister for international affairs at Japan's finance ministry from 1999-2001
- was a private-sector member of the government's top economic council for two years until 2008
He spoke with Reuters:
- "By hammering speculative moves with intervention, the authorities are trying to generate market expectations that 160 could be the dollar/yen's ceiling"
- "When the yen's decline is proceeding gradually reflecting interest-rate differentials, it's hard to change the trend with currency intervention," Ito said. "If the yen's weakness continues and has a pass-through on inflation, two rate hikes by end-year could become an option for the BOJ,"
- "There's a chance the BOJ could raise rates again this autumn at the earliest, and push the short-term policy rate to 0.5% by year-end"
This guy is probably better placed than most to nominate a potential 'line in the sand'. Says 160. It was above there on Monday that the BoJ first intervened so he may be onto something.
Update:
