Monetary authorities spent ¥692.5 billion in their currency market interventions in March, the Finance Ministry said Thursday.

All or most of the funds are believed to have been used to purchase the dollar to curb the strength of the yen, after the Group of Seven developed countries announced March 18 they would step into the foreign-exchange markets in a concerted manner to weaken the Japanese currency, which had risen to the highest level against the dollar since the end of World War II.