Unlike in previous forays, the Bank of Japan will not drain the money flowing into the economy as a result of the yen selling, sources familiar with the matter said.
That indicated the central bank plans to use the sold yen as a monetary tool to boost liquidity and support the economy.
Authorities that sell their own currencies to weaken them often issue bills to âsterilizeâ the funds and keep the excess money from becoming inflationary. In Japanâs case, it wants to promote inflation since the economy has been dogged with deflation for much of the past decade.
âThe governmentâs aim, and the aim of authorities in general, is to add monetary injections to the economy,â Callum Henderson, global head of foreign exchange strategy with Standard Chartered in Singapore, told Reuters Insider.
âUnsterilized intervention should be yen-negative, it should be very bullish for higher risk assets, very bullish for stocks in Japan and obviously it should add to the impact of the intervention of the yen,â he said.
Another name for this is Quantitative Easing. It was one of the options outlined by the Bernanke 2002 speech(printing up money to buy foreign exchange)