Asian currencies had their worst back-to-back weekly loss this year after a political impasse in Greece roiled global markets and official reports showed exports from China, Malaysia and the Philippines slowed.
South Korea’s won had its worst five-day drop since December last year, while Malaysia’s ringgit and the Philippine peso slid the most in eight weeks as global funds pulled US$1.1 billion out of emerging-market stocks, according to a Citigroup Inc report citing EPFR Global data.
Greece’s political leaders are yet to agree on forming a new government following a May 6 election, fueling concern the country could renege on bailout accords. French Socialist Francois Hollande, who has called austerity measures to be delayed, was elected president.
The won slumped 1.3 percent this week to 1,146.55 per US dollar at the close on Friday in Seoul, the biggest loss in five months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The ringgit dropped 1 percent to 3.0716, the peso weakened 0.6 percent to 42.565 and Thailand’s baht fell 0.7 percent to 31.19 per US dollar, the lowest since January.
The Bloomberg-JPMorgan Asia Dollar Index dropped 0.4 percent from a week ago and reached the lowest level since Jan. 18 on Wednesday. It lost 0.7 percent over the past two weeks, the most since December last year. Its 60-day historical volatility rose to 2.75 percent from 2.72 percent a week ago.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index of stocks plunged 4.5 percent, the biggest weekly loss since November, as JPMorgan Chase & Co disclosed a US$2 billion trading loss on synthetic credit securities.
Asian currencies tumbled after government reports this week showed Malaysia’s exports unexpectedly shrank 0.1 percent in March from a year earlier while shipments from the Philippines contracted 1.2 percent. China’s overseas sales grew 4.9 percent, while imports rose 0.3 percent last month, both trailing economists’ forecasts.
“The weak data cast doubts on the strength of China’s domestic consumption,” said Banny Lam, a Hong Kong-based economist at CCB International Securities Ltd, a unit of China’s second-largest bank.
The yuan could trade around 6.3 per dollar this quarter, he said.
China’s currency declined 0.07 percent to 6.3106 per dollar in Shanghai yesterday from a week ago. It touched 6.3188 on Friday, the weakest level since April 20.
The euro fell against the US dollar for a second week, reaching a three-month low, as concern mounted that politicians in Greece won’t be able to form a coalition government and the nation may exit the monetary union.
The 17-nation currency slumped after an inconclusive May 6 election and the subsequent struggle by leaders to form a government. The dollar gained against all its major peers, and the yen rose against all but the greenback, amid increased demand for havens.
The Bank of Korea kept its benchmark interest rate at 3.25 percent on Thursday, while Bank Indonesia maintained its reference rate at 5.75 percent. Bank Negara Malaysia kept the policy rate at 3 percent for a sixth straight meeting, the central bank said in a statement in Kuala Lumpur.
The Indian currency dropped 0.3 percent this week to 53.6350 per US dollar in Mumbai. It fell 0.4 percent yesterday and touched 53.905 on Thursday, 0.7 percent stronger than its record low of 54.305 on Dec. 15. The central bank said on Thursday that exporters must convert half of their overseas earnings, with compliance set within a fortnight.
Elsewhere, the New Taiwan dollar slipped 0.4 percent to NT$29.410, snapping a four-week advance.
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