The Indian rupee and the Philippine peso led a weekly advance among Asian currencies on speculation oil prices near the lowest in seven weeks will reduce demand for dollars from importers.
The rupee posted its best week in four months as exporters may have converted overseas earnings to guard against further currency gains. A stronger rupee erodes revenue from overseas shipments in local-currency terms. Crude oil in New York declined for a third week, helping lower India’s import costs.
The rupee gained 1.2 percent this week to 42.265 per US dollar in Mumbai, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It may strengthen to 42.10 next week, Rao said.
The Philippine peso rose 0.9 percent from last week to 44.07 in Manila, according to Tullett Prebon PLC.
The Indian currency rallied 1.5 percent on Wednesday, the biggest gain in more than a decade, on speculation the government will allow more overseas investment in the financial industry after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh survived a confidence vote in parliament the previous day.
South Korea’s won advanced this week on speculation the government bought the currency to help contain inflation.
The won has gained 3.8 percent this month, the best performance among the 16 most-active major currencies as South Korean Vice Finance Minister Kim Dong-soo said on Thursday that the government would monitor for “herd behavior” in the foreign-exchange market.
The won climbed 0.5 percent this week to 1,009.20 in Seoul, from 1,013.80 last week, Seoul Money Brokerage Services Ltd said. It dropped 0.2 percent on Friday.
Malaysia’s ringgit snapped a two-week advance as the central bank unexpectedly refrained from increasing interest rates yesterday.
The ringgit dropped 0.3 percent this week to 3.25, Bloomberg data showed.
Elsewhere, The New Taiwan dollar dropped 0.2 percent to NT$30.407 against the US currency this week, the Singapore dollar fell 0.4 percent to S$1.3588 and the Thai baht declined 0.3 percent to 33.42 per US dollar. Vietnam’s dong was unchanged at 16,795 versus a week ago.
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
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