Japan’s Ito says authorities are trying to place a 160 ceiling on USD/JPY

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:

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.