Japan's currency intervention last month to stop a sharp slide in the yen was likely a "signaling action" to smooth volatility, though the impact of such moves tend to be short-lived, a senior International Monetary Fund official said on Thursday.
Recent volatile market moves heighten the need for the Bank of Japan to maintain ultralow interest rates and avoid making tweaks to yield curve control (YCC), Sanjaya Panth, deputy director for the IMF's Asia and Pacific Department, said in an interview.
"We think this is not a good time to change YCC. In a particularly volatile situation where markets are edgy and many things are happening, you want to offer continued commitment to monetary easing until inflation picks up durably," Panth said.