The yen has slipped past ¥150 against the dollar for the first time in more than three decades as investors remained on alert for another intervention by Japanese authorities to prop up the currency.

The yen fell as much as 0.1 per cent to ¥150.08 per dollar on Thursday, pushing the Japanese currency to its lowest level since August 1990.

The latest decline came as the Bank of Japan said it would launch an emergency bond-buying operation, offering to purchase ¥250bn ($1.7bn) of government debt as it works to pin down yields even as long-term interest rates rise globally.

Despite a $20bn intervention in September, the yen has lost more than 23 per cent of its value against the dollar year to date due to the widening gulf between the Bank of Japan’s ultra-loose monetary policy and tightening by most other big central banks.

Traders have speculated that authorities subtly stepped in last week to strengthen the yen but there has been no announced intervention following the September action.

Comments from Bank of Japan governor Haruhiko Kuroda last month that signalled that interest rates would remain low helped push the yen past the ¥145.90 per dollar level and prompted the first intervention by Japanese authorities since 1998.

Analysts have warned that interventions will not be effective in stemming the depreciation so long as the interest rate differential between Japan and the rest of the world continues to widen.

Despite a surge in imported food and energy prices, inflation in Japan has remained relatively mild compared with the US and Europe. The BoJ has argued that core inflation will slow to less than 2 per cent next year and underlying demand in the economy remains too weak for the central bank to shift to policy tightening.

In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Japan’s prime minister Fumio Kishida said the central bank needed to maintain its policy until price increases led to rising wage.

Strategists at multiple investment banks have downgraded their short-term forecasts for the yen as it has plunged. Last week, JPMorgan raised its fourth-quarter estimate for Japan’s currency to ¥155 against the dollar, up from ¥147 previously, while Goldman Sachs pushed its three-month forecast to the same level, up from ¥145.

On Wednesday, analysts at Goldman Sachs led by Naohiko Baba said they expected the BoJ to “maintain the status quo across all monetary policy parameters” at its upcoming meeting next week.

The analysts added that “the key here in our view is the effectiveness of intervention with the apparently conflicting policy goals”, with the BoJ still committed to ultra-loose monetary policy and Japan’s Ministry of Finance seeking to keep depreciation in check.

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