Bessent says yen will find its own level if Bank of Japan follows 'proper' policy

By David Lawder and Leika Kihara WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday the yen will find its own level if the Bank of Japan follows "proper monetary policy." Bessent made the remarks to reporters when asked whether the yen's recent level was reasonable or a bit too weak. A senior Japanese finance ministry official declined to comment, when asked about Bessent's remarks. In August, Bessent said the BOJ would likely be raising interest rates, as it was behind the curve in dealing with the risk of inflation. The BOJ exited a decade-long, massive stimulus program last year and raised its key interest rate to 0.5% in January. It has kept rates steady since then, with Governor Kazuo Ueda citing the need to scrutinize the impact of U.S. tariffs and slowing global demand. The slow pace of BOJ rate hikes has weakened the yen, pushing up import costs and keeping consumer inflation above the BOJ's 2% target for well over three years. "It's something the BOJ ought to decide," Japanese Finance Minister Katsuhobu Kato said, when asked how the central bank should respond to rising living costs from a weak yen. While the weak yen and rising crude oil prices likely played a part in driving up prices in the past few years, it was hard to judge how yen falls were affecting prices recently, Kato told reporters after a meeting with Bessent on Wednesday, held on the sidelines of the annual IMF meetings in Washington. (Reporting by David Lawder and Leika Kihara; Editing by Andrea Ricci, Paul Simao and Shri Navaratnam)

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