South Korea’s won slumped to a four-year low on speculation that intervention won’t halt the currency’s slide.
The Philippine peso fell this week after the government lowered its economic growth forecast. The NT dollar declined 0.1 percent to NT$31.370.
The won dropped as much as 0.8 percent yesterday to 1,063 against the US dollar, the weakest since December 2004, as refiners bought the US currency to import oil and overseas investors sold local stocks.
The won had rallied 0.6 percent before the slide on purchases by the central bank, said Sam Hong, a Seoul-based currency trader at Shinhan Bank, a unit of South Korea’s second-biggest financial group.
“The government’s action is not strong enough to stop the won’s slide,” said Lee Yoon-jin, a currency dealer at state-run Korea Development Bank in Seoul. “There have been a lot of purchases of the dollar from the local energy companies.”
The won slid 0.7 percent to 1,062.5 per dollar yesterday in Seoul, after touching a high of 1,048, Seoul Money Brokerage Services Ltd said.
It dropped 4.7 percent this month, the biggest decline among Asia’s 10 most-active currencies, excluding the yen.
The peso fell 0.2 percent to 45.65 per dollar in Manila yesterday, the Bankers Association of the Philippines said, extending the currency’s losses this week to 0.3 percent.
The peso fell for a fourth week and reached the lowest level in more than a month on concern that demand for the nation’s exports from its biggest market in the US will decrease.
The Indonesian rupiah snapped a two-week decline on speculation overseas investors are buying the nation’s assets as stocks rise and the government issues Islamic bonds.
The currency completed its best week in more than a month on speculation the central bank is seeking a stronger currency to help temper inflation.
Foreign investors bought more Indonesian stocks than they sold in two of the three trading days until Thursday.
The currency rose 0.3 percent to 9,140 yesterday in Jakarta.
Singapore’s dollar had its best week in two months as the US dollar weakened against the euro and the yen, which are part of the trade-weighted basket managed by the Southeast Asian nation’s central bank.
The Singapore dollar rose 0.6 percent this week.
Elsewhere, the Malaysian ringgit advanced 0.2 percent to 3.3400 a dollar from 3.3480 last week, while the Thai baht fell 0.3 percent to 33.93 and Vietnam’s dong was at 16,595 per dollar.
‘CROWN JEWEL’: Washington ‘can delay and deter’ Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plans for Taiwan, but it is ‘a very delicate situation there,’ the secretary of state said US President Donald Trump is opposed to any change to Taiwan’s “status quo” by force or extortion and would maintain that policy, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Hugh Hewitt Show host on Wednesday. The US’ policy is to maintain Taiwan’s “status quo” and to oppose any changes in the situation by force or extortion, Rubio said. Hewitt asked Rubio about the significance of Trump earlier this month speaking with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) at the White House, a meeting that Hewitt described as a “big deal.” Asked whether the meeting was an indication of the
‘RELATIVELY STRONG LANGUAGE’: An expert said the state department has not softened its language on China and was ‘probably a little more Taiwan supportive’ China’s latest drills near Taiwan on Monday were “brazen and irresponsible threats,” a US Department of State spokesperson said on Tuesday, while reiterating Washington’s decades-long support of Taipei. “China cannot credibly claim to be a ‘force for stability in a turbulent world’ while issuing brazen and irresponsible threats toward Taiwan,” the unnamed spokesperson said in an e-mailed response to media queries. Washington’s enduring commitment to Taiwan will continue as it has for 45 years and the US “will continue to support Taiwan in the face of China’s military, economic, informational and diplomatic pressure campaign,” the e-mail said. “Alongside our international partners, we firmly
KAOHSIUNG CEREMONY: The contract chipmaker is planning to build 5 fabs in the southern city to gradually expand its 2-nanometer chip capacity Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, yesterday confirmed that it plans to hold a ceremony on March 31 to unveil a capacity expansion plan for its most advanced 2-nanometer chips in Kaohsiung, demonstrating its commitment to further investment at home. The ceremony is to be hosted by TSMC cochief operating officer Y.P. Chyn (秦永沛). It did not disclose whether Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) and high-ranking government officials would attend the ceremony. More details are to be released next week, it said. The chipmaker’s latest move came after its announcement earlier this month of an additional US$100 billion
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
RSS