Japanese monetary authorities spent almost 666 billion yen intervening in the currency market in January to stem the yen's rise, according to Finance Ministry data released Monday.
A report on the receipts and payments of Treasury funds released by the ministry shows that the Foreign Exchange Fund Special Account incurred a deficit of 665.9 billion yen in January.
Payments in the account are mainly used for intervention carried out by the Bank of Japan on behalf of the ministry.
On Friday, the ministry confirmed that it had intervened in the foreign exchange market several times since mid-January. It said at the time that the operations, which were the first in seven months, totaled a little under 700 billion yen.
The ministry refused to disclose further details, such as the specific timing or size of each operation.