India’s rupee led gains in Asian currencies, completing its best week in 12 years, on signs overseas funds are returning to buy local assets aided by cuts in borrowing costs by global central banks.
Seven of the 10 most-active currencies in Asia excluding the yen strengthened this week as the MSCI Asia-Pacific Index rose 1.2 percent, extending last week’s 6 percent advance.
The rupee climbed 3.8 percent to 47.66 per US dollar in Mumbai, from 49.4575 on Oct. 31, data compiled by Bloomberg show. That is the biggest weekly gain since March 1996. Thailand’s baht and the Philippine peso strengthened 0.3 percent to 34.96 and 48.81 respectively in the week.
The New Taiwan dollar gained for a second week, the longest winning streak in more than three months.
“It’s difficult to see further weakening in the Taiwan dollar,” said Daniel Soh, an economist at Forecast Pte in Singapore. “The cross-strait policy measures will provide some support to the currency, as this is positive to the economies on both sides.”
The NT dollar rose 0.5 percent to NT$32.824 against the dollar, from NT$33 on Oct. 31, according to Taipei Forex Inc.
The yen headed for weekly gains against the euro and the British pound on speculation global interest-rate cuts will make it less attractive to purchase overseas assets using funds from Japan.
The yen rose to ¥124.46 versus the euro in London from ¥125.30 at the end of last week. It climbed to ¥153.87 versus the pound, from ¥158.28 last week.
Indonesia’s rupiah reversed Friday’s losses to end the week stronger. The rupiah rose 0.7 percent to 10,900 a dollar, from 10,975 a week earlier, Bloomberg data show.
South Korea’s won declined 2.8 percent this week to 1,328.80 per dollar, taking this year’s loss to 30 percent, the worst performance among the 10 most-traded Asian currencies outside Japan.
Elsewhere, the Vietnamese dong dropped 0.9 percent this week to 16,984 against the US dollar after the central bank widened the daily trading band for the currency to 3 percent from 2 percent. The Malaysian ringgit weakened 0.2 percent to 3.5520.
Taiwan aims to open 18 representative offices and seven Taiwan Tourism Information Centers worldwide by next year to attract international visitors, the Tourism Administration said on Saturday. The agency has so far opened three representative offices abroad this year and would open two more before the end of the year, it said. It has also already opened information centers in Jakarta, Mumbai and Paris, and is to open one in Vancouver next month and in Manila in December, it said. Next year, it would also open offices in Amsterdam, Dubai and Sydney, it added. While the Cabinet did not mention international tourists in its
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NEXT LEVEL: The defense ministry confirmed that a video released last month featured personnel piloting new FPV drone systems being developed by the Armaments Bureau Taipei and Washington are pushing for their drone companies to work together to establish a China-free supply chain, the Financial Times reported on Friday. A delegation of high-level executives and US government officials were yesterday to arrive in Taipei to discuss with their Taiwanese counterparts collaboration on drone technology procurement and development, the report said. The executives represent 26 US manufacturers of drone and counter-drone systems, while the officials are from the US Department of Commerce and the US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit, along with Dev Shenoy, principal director for microelectronics in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense
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