Asian currencies had their biggest weekly gain of the year, led by the Philippine peso and Thailand’s baht, as upbeat economic data fanned speculation interest rates will be raised to counter inflation.
The Bloomberg-JPMorgan Asia Dollar Index climbed after Taiwan and the Philippines announced faster economic growth than economists forecast this week, with the Philippines also reporting a higher-than-expected inflation rate. Exports and consumer prices gained more than forecast in South Korea and Indonesia, while overseas sales in Malaysia also exceeded projections, separate data showed. Bank Indonesia unexpectedly raised interest rates on Friday for the first time in two years.
“Asian economic growth is very solid and they are in an environment allowing central banks to boost rates to fight inflation,” said Tsutomu Soma, a bond and currency dealer at Okasan Securities Co in Tokyo. “The trend of Asian currency appreciation is still intact.”
The Asia Dollar Index, which tracks the region’s 10 most-traded currencies excluding the yen, climbed 0.5 percent this week to 116.42.
The Philippine peso advanced 0.8 percent to 43.765 per US dollar, the baht strengthened 0.8 percent to 30.81 and Indonesia’s rupiah rose 0.4 percent to 8,993.
The peso had a second weekly gain as a government report on Friday showed consumer prices climbed 3.5 percent last month from a year earlier, the most in four months and more than the median 3.3 percent gain forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists. GDP rose 7.3 percent last year, the fastest growth since 1976, the government reported on Monday.
Indonesia’s rupiah reached its strongest level in four weeks on Friday after Bank Indonesia boosted its reference rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 6.75 percent. Inflation in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy accelerated to a 21-month high of 7.02 percent last month, official figures show.
India’s rupee strengthened 0.4 percent this week to 45.59 per dollar. The statistics office will predict economic growth of 8.6 percent for the fiscal year ending March 31, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg ahead of an announcement tomorrow. A -report on -Tuesday showed exports climbed 36.4 percent in December from a year earlier, the biggest increase since March last year.
Financial markets in Taiwan, China and South Korea were shut most of this week for the Lunar New Year holidays.
The New Taiwan dollar strengthened on Tuesday on speculation exporters were repatriating income ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday that began on Wednesday. The local currency market will reopen on Tuesday.
The NT dollar closed 0.3 percent stronger at NT$29.200 against its US counterpart at 4pm on Tuesday, according to Taipei Forex Inc.
The South Korean won fell 0.3 percent to close at 1,116.95 per US dollar on Tuesday, the last trading day of the week in Seoul.
Financial markets in Singapore and Malaysia were shut for the Lunar New Year holidays on Thursday and Friday. The Singapore dollar strengthened 0.6 percent to S$1.2734 per US dollar before the break, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Malaysia’s ringgit added 0.5 percent to 3.04 over the same period.
The US dollar advanced for a third day against the euro and yen in the longest stretch of gains in four weeks after the US jobless rate fell to the lowest level since April 2009 even as winter storms limited gains in payrolls.
The US dollar appreciated 0.4 percent to US$1.3581 per euro at 5pm in New York, from US$1.3634 on Thursday, after touching US$1.3544, the strongest level since Jan. 24. The greenback climbed 0.7 percent to ¥82.18, from ¥81.63. The euro gained 0.3 percent to ¥111.62, from ¥111.29.
The British pound appreciated 1.6 percent in the week to £0.8443 per euro as of 5:02pm in London. Britain’s currency climbed 1.4 percent to US$1.6088 in the period.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San