Asian currencies strengthened this week, led by South Korea’s won and the Indonesian rupiah, as a global stocks rally spurred demand for emerging-market assets.
The won gained the most in almost three months against the dollar and the rupiah climbed for the first week in nine after Bank of America Corp, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Citigroup Inc said they were profitable.
The Bloomberg-JPMorgan Asia Dollar Index had its best weekly advance this year after the US, the region’s biggest export market, reported a smaller drop in last month’s retail sales than economists forecast.
The won was at 1,483.50 per dollar as of 3pm in Seoul on Friday, 4.5 percent higher than a week ago.
The rupiah rose 0.9 percent this week to 11,978.
The Asia Dollar Index climbed 0.7 percent this week, its best performance since the period ended Dec. 19.
Malaysia’s ringgit gained 0.3 percent this week to 3.7055 per dollar in Kuala Lumpur.
The Malaysian government on Tuesday announced a US$16 billion economic stimulus plan to help sustain growth.
The US, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan are all already in recession.
The rupee was at 51.5875 per dollar in Mumbai, up 0.2 percent from a week ago.
The New Taiwan dollar rose 0.8 percent this week to NT$34.495 versus the US currency, Singapore’s strengthened 0.3 percent to S$1.5422 and the Thai baht climbed 0.4 percent to 35.94.
The Philippine peso and Vietnam’s dong were both little changed at 48.550 and 17,482.50, respectively.
The US dollar was slightly lower against the euro and the pound on Friday as China’s premier warned the US not to let the dollar get too weak through massive deficit spending.
The euro traded at US$1.2898, up from US$1.2862, while the British pound gained to US$1.3970 from US$1.3909.
The dollar edged up to ¥98.04 from ¥97.99.
On Friday, the US Commerce Department said the US trade deficit dropped to a six-year low in January as imports, especially of crude oil, slid. The trade imbalance stood at US$36 billion in January, down nearly 10 percent from the month prior. It stands to contract from last year if the pace keeps on — even as US exports are dropping, imports are falling even more sharply.
In 2007, the US trade deficit narrowed after setting records for five years in a row.
A smaller trade imbalance is a long-term positive for the dollar, Bank of New York Mellon Corp senior currency strategist Michael Woolfolk said.
The trade deficit with China rose 3.5 percent, however, to US$20.6 billion.
In other New York trading, the greenback rose to 1.1890 Swiss francs from SF1.1880 late on Thursday, and slipped to C$1.2747 from C$1.2788.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
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.
SECURITY: The purpose for giving Hong Kong and Macau residents more lenient paths to permanent residency no longer applies due to China’s policies, a source said The government is considering removing an optional path to citizenship for residents from Hong Kong and Macau, and lengthening the terms for permanent residence eligibility, a source said yesterday. In a bid to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from infiltrating Taiwan through immigration from Hong Kong and Macau, the government could amend immigration laws for residents of the territories who currently receive preferential treatment, an official familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity said. The move was part of “national security-related legislative reform,” they added. Under the amendments, arrivals from the Chinese territories would have to reside in Taiwan for
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