South Korea’s won led gains in Asia this week as policymakers pledged to bolster the currency and tame inflation.
The won’s 4.8 percent gain this week, the most since March 1998, made it the world’s best performer. South Korean Finance Minister Kang Man-soo this week announced the government would tackle risks stemming from oil costs and inflation, while Bank of Korea Governor Lee Seong-tae said the bank may intervene if necessary because the currency market “overreacts.” Six out of the 10 most-traded currencies in Asia outside of Japan rose this week.
South Korea’s currency traded at 1,002.30 against the US dollar at the 3pm close in Seoul on Friday, from 1,002.90 a day earlier, Seoul Money Brokerage Services Ltd said.
The currency rallied, trimming this year’s loss to 6.6 percent, as South Korean President Lee Myung-bak dismissed the nation’s currency policy chief, signaling the end of his support for a weaker won. Industrial Bank of Korea estimated the government sold as much as US$7 billion on Wednesday alone to shore up the won.
The New Taiwan dollar was little changed at NT$30.392 on Friday versus NT$30.401 on July 4, while Thailand’s baht declined 0.4 percent to 33.65.
Elsewhere, the Singapore dollar added 0.3 percent this week to S$1.3588 against the US currency, Indonesia’s rupiah advanced 0.6 percent to 9,162 and Vietnam’s dong rose 0.03 percent to 16,841.50.
Malaysia’s ringgit climbed on speculation investors will shun the US dollar as the prospect of widening credit-market losses gives the US Federal Reserve less room to raise interest rates.
The ringgit logged its first weekly gain in three after US stocks entered a bear market this week for the first time since 2002.
The ringgit traded at 3.2440 per dollar late on Friday compared with 3.2465 a day earlier, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The currency has risen 0.7 percent this week.
The Philippine peso declined for a third week on speculation higher oil costs will stoke inflation and spur demand for the US currency to meet the cost of fuel imports.
The peso fell 0.5 percent this week to 45.662, according to Tullett Prebon PLC.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so
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