TOKYO (Reuters) – Former Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda told an informal panel that recent yen declines were excessive, and that there was a possibility authorities could intervene in the currency market, the newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Kuroda also said the yen was expected to rebound in the medium- to long-term, the paper said, citing several unnamed participants of the closed-door panel held by Columbia University in New York on Monday.

Formerly Japan’s top bureaucrat overseeing currency policy in the finance ministry, Kuroda served as BOJ governor for a decade until April 2023.

On the BOJ’s decision to end negative interest rates in March, Kuroda welcomed the move as a first step towards normalising monetary policy, according to Nikkei.

Under Kuroda, the BOJ deployed a massive asset-buying programme in 2013 as well as negative interest rates and bond yield control in 2016. The central bank ended these policies at a policy meeting in March.