Japan said on Friday that it would subsidize around 20 percent of the average family’s electric bill, part of a sweeping economic package that comes as the country struggles with high food and energy prices caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a yen trading at decades-long lows, the New York Times reported. The total package, which weighs in at over $200 billion, includes a wide variety of economic measures, ranging from individual payments to families with children to fuel subsidies for the transportation industry.

Japan's factory output fell in September for the first time in four months as manufacturers took a hit from rising costs for raw materials and the global economic slowdown. But in a brighter sign for the world's third-largest economy, retail sales grew for a seventh straight month, raising hopes for a sustainable boost in consumption after the easing of COVID-19-related border controls for foreign tourists earlier this month, Reuters reported.

Japan's economic revitalisation minister stepped down on Monday after growing criticism of his failure to fully explain his ties to a church group that critics say is akin to a cult, a move that will be a blow to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Reuters reported. Daishiro Yamagiwa, the first person to resign from Kishida's government since he took power last year, became the highest profile political casualty thus far from a widening scandal sparked by the July killing of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The Japanese yen made a thumping 4 yen jump for a second straight session on Monday on suspected early intervention by the Bank of Japan, but struggled to hold its gains against a robust U.S. dollar, Reuters reported. The yen hit a low of 149.70 per dollar in early deals before being swept to a high of 145.28 within minutes in a move that suggested the BOJ had stepped in for a second successive day. The currency, however, dropped back to near 148 soon.

Japanese policymakers made fresh threats of intervention on Thursday after the yen tumbled past the key psychological level of 150 to the dollar, keeping investors on high alert in case Tokyo steps into markets again to support the fragile currency, Reuters reported.

The number of corporate bankruptcies in Japan rose 6.9% in the April-September period from a year earlier to 3,141 for the first increase in three years, according to a survey by a credit research company, the Japan Times reported. The rise was attributable to difficulties that companies experienced in repaying financial aid they had received from the government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Tokyo Shoko Research said.

Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party is looking to provide new support for heavily indebted firms amid fears that some of them may go bust after a Covid-related credit program ends, a senior party official said, Bloomberg News reported. “The public and private sectors need to cooperate quickly to provide aid,” said Satsuki Katayama, head of the LDP’s Research Commission on the Finance and Banking Systems in an interview last month.

Japan spent a likely record daily amount to prop up the yen last week, leaving economists and investors wondering how many times the government could intervene again despite skepticism over the impact of such action, Bloomberg News reported. The Ministry of Finance disclosed Friday that it spent 2.84 trillion yen ($19.7 billion) in September to slow the yen’s slide in its first intervention to support the currency since 1998. Some private analysts had estimated the intervention at up to 3.6 trillion yen.

Japan’s central bank took the unusual step Thursday of intervening in the market to stem the yen’s decline against the U.S. dollar, the Associated Press reported. Earlier in the day, the dollar rose to nearly 146 yen — a 24-year low — after the Bank of Japan left its key lending rate unchanged following the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision to raise its benchmark rate by three-quarters of a percentage point. The dollar later fell sharply to about 142 yen. It was trading at 143.05 yen early Thursday morning U.S.

The Bank of Japan’s outlier status is set to become even more acute this week with central banks from the Federal Reserve to the Swiss National Bank expected to raise borrowing costs, Bloomberg News reported. Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda and his fellow board members are seen standing pat at the end of a two-day meeting Thursday that comes just hours after the Fed unleashes what’s likely to be a third-straight interest rate hike of 75 basis points. With the BOJ likely to be clinging to the world’s only negative policy rate, its dovish stance may send the embattled yen sliding again.