India’s rupee and South Korea’s won led declines in Asian currencies this week on concern higher commodity prices will slow the global economic recovery, hurting exports and curbing demand for emerging-market assets, while the Singapore dollar climbed to a record after a revaluation.
Overseas investors sold US$591 million more South Korean and Taiwanese shares than they bought in the week, exchange data show.
The yuan hit a 17-year high on Friday as China reported bigger-than-expected increases in GDP and consumer prices.
“People are taking risk off the table as there are still uncertainties in Japan and because of strong commodity prices,” said Roland Randall, a senior currency strategist at TD Securities Inc in Singapore.
The rupee dropped 0.6 percent this week to 44.333 per US dollar. The won weakened 0.6 percent to 1,089.80 and the New Taiwan dollar fell 0.2 percent to NT$29.050, according to Taipei Forex Inc. The Singapore dollar rose 1 percent to S$1.2452 after the city-state’s central bank said on Thursday it would allow faster gains to combat inflation.
Japan’s government cut its assessment of the economy for the first time in six months on Wednesday, after a record earthquake and ensuing tsunami last month killed more than 12,000 people.
The yuan gained 0.05 percent this week to 6.5325 per US dollar, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System. It touched 6.5290 on Friday, the strongest level since the country unified official and market exchange rates at the end of 1993, on speculation policymakers will allow gains to tame inflation.
“The inflation problem is getting more complicated because it’s not only about domestic costs, but rising import bills as well,” said Kenix Lai (賴春梅), a foreign-exchange analyst at Sun Hung Kai Securities Ltd (新鴻基證券) in Hong Kong. “China needs a package of tools, including currency appreciation, to deal with the price pressure.”
The won retreated from a 31-month high and Thailand’s baht fell from its strongest level of the year on concern policymakers would intervene to combat appreciation.
The baht declined 0.3 percent in the first two days of the week to 30.14 per US dollar. Financial markets in Thailand were closed for the last three days of the week for public holidays.
Elsewhere, Philippine peso slid 0.6 percent to 43.24 for the week, Indonesia’s rupiah dropped 0.2 percent to 8,663 and Malaysia’s ringgit slipped 0.2 percent to 3.0235.
EURO, YEN DROP
The euro fell the most since November against the yen and dropped from a 15-month high versus the US dollar on concern a bailout for Greece may fail to prevent the first default by a country in the 17-nation currency region.
New Zealand’s dollar surged this week to a three-year high versus the greenback on speculation accelerating inflation won’t hamper the economy.
The US currency touched the lowest level this month versus the yen on bets the US Federal Reserve will reaffirm after its April 26-April 27 meeting its plan to keep borrowing costs low to support the economic growth.
“The risk premium in the periphery has re-emerged,” said Mark McCormick, a currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co in New York. “People are becoming concerned with the probability of countries like Greece and Ireland having to potentially restructure their debt.”
The euro fell 2.3 percent to ¥119.96 on Friday, from ¥122.76 on Friday last week, in the biggest weekly decrease since a 2.5 percent drop in the five days ended on Nov. 26 last year.
The euro depreciated 0.4 percent to US$1.4430, from US$1.4483, after rising above US$1.45 for the first time since January last year.
The dollar dropped 1.9 percent to ¥83.13, from ¥84.76, after touching ¥82.96 this week, the lowest level since March 31.
The Canadian dollar slid from a three-year high versus the greenback, dropping for the first time since the week ended March 18.
The Bank of Canada held its target-lending rate at 1 percent at its meeting on Tuesday and said currency appreciation “could create even greater headwinds” for the economy.
The loonie slid 0.4 percent to C$0.9592 versus the greenback after touching C$0.9527 on Friday last week, the strongest level since November 2007.
The New Zealand dollar rallied as New Zealand Minister of Finance Bill English said on Friday that the nation’s accelerating inflation wouldn’t hamper the economy. Reserve Bank of New Zealand Governor Alan Bollard said this week the economy will get a boost from higher farm export prices, which will underpin the nation’s currency and may stir inflation.
The kiwi appreciated 2.1 percent to US$0.7995 after touching US$0.7997 on Friday, the highest level since April 2008.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained