Asian currencies slumped this week, led by Singapore’s dollar, on concern slowing global growth will curb demand for the region’s assets.
Singapore’s currency posted its biggest weekly loss in a decade after the Straits Times newspaper cited Singaporean Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam as saying the economy is moving toward a slowdown and growth is unlikely to rebound “any time soon.”
Nine of the 10 most-active Asian currencies outside of Japan fell this week.
“Tharman’s dovish comments confirm expectations that the central bank won’t be seeking any further policy tightening,” said Emmanuel Ng, economist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp in Singapore.
The Singapore dollar weakened as much as 2.3 percent this week to S$1.4014 against the US currency in Singapore, the biggest loss since the five days ended June 26, 1998, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
The New Taiwan dollar had its biggest weekly loss in more than two years on speculation slowing global economic growth will curb demand for consumer electronics produced by the nation’s exporters.
The currency fell for a ninth day, the longest losing streak since July 2005, after a government report on Thursday showed shipments grew last month at less than half the pace forecast by economists. Taiwan’s GDP may expand 4.78 percent this year, the slowest since 2005, a statistics bureau forecast released in May said.
“The Taiwan dollar is finding it difficult to fight the strong US dollar trend that’s happening in the whole region,” said Philip Wee, a currency strategist at DBS Group Holdings Ltd in Singapore. “Europe and Japan are all showing negative growth numbers, and the Asian region is seeing declining GDP.”
The NT dollar fell 1.5 percent this week to NT$31.090 against the US currency, Taipei Forex Inc figures show.
Taiwan’s export growth slowed to 8 percent last month from 21.3 percent in June, the government reported. Economists in a Bloomberg News survey forecast overseas sales, which account for about half of the island’s GDP, would increase 17.1 percent.
The Philippine peso lost 0.3 percent this week to 44.335, Indonesia’s rupiah dropped 0.8 percent to 9,170 and Thailand’s baht declined 0.5 percent to 33.70. Vietnam’s dong advanced 1.2 percent this week to 16,550.
The ringgit fell 1.2 percent this week to 3.3015 against the US dollar, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The currency, which started the year at 3.3070, has declined for a sixth straight day, the longest run since October 2006.
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