Asian currencies fell for a fourth week, the longest stretch of losses this year, on speculation Europe’s debt crisis would stall the global economic recovery and hurt demand for the region’s exports.
Official reports this week showed China’s manufacturing probably contracted for a seventh month this month, Taiwan’s overseas shipments and factory output declined, and Malaysia grew at the slowest pace last quarter since June.
India’s rupee reached a record low even after the central bank took measures to boost US dollar supply to alleviate pressure on the currency.
“You still have massive problems in Europe and there are a lot of concerns about the slowdown in China,” said Thomas Harr, the Singapore-based head of Asian foreign-exchange strategy at Standard Chartered PLC. “There’s pressure on all Asian currencies at the moment.”
India’s rupee slid 1.7 percent this week to 55.3750 per US dollar in Mumbai, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Philippine peso weakened 1.2 percent to 43.755, Thailand’s baht lost 1.1 percent to 31.69, China’s yuan slipped 0.2 percent to 6.3439 and the New Taiwan dollar edged down 0.1 percent to NT$29.650.
The Bloomberg-JPMorgan Asia Dollar Index, which tracks the region’s 10 most-traded currencies excluding the yen, dropped 0.5 percent this week and touched 114.21 on Friday, the lowest level since Dec. 15. Funds based abroad pulled US$1.9 billion from equity markets in Taiwan, South Korea, Indonesia and Thailand this week, exchange data show.
China’s biggest lenders may miss their loan targets for the first time in at least seven years as the slowdown crimps credit, according to three bank officials with knowledge of the matter, who declined to be identified because they are not permitted to speak publicly.
Banks’ total new loans for this year will be about 7 trillion yuan (US$1.1 trillion), less than the government goal of 8 trillion yuan to 8.5 trillion yuan, one of the officials said.
Greece is heading for a second election on June 17 after an inconclusive vote this month ignited concern it may quit the euro.
“The downside risks to China’s growth are greater now as European leaders can’t make progress on solving their debt problems,” said Stella Lee, president of Success Futures & Foreign Exchange Ltd in Hong Kong. “The weak loan growth and the uncertainty in Europe are going to put yuan appreciation to a halt.”
The rupee fell to a record low of 56.3875 per US dollar on Thursday, prompting central bank Governor Duvvuri Subbarao to say policymakers would take the required steps to curb swings in the exchange rate.
Elsewhere, South Korea’s won fell 1.1 percent this week to 1,185.43 per US dollar. Malaysia’s ringgit dropped 0.6 percent to 3.1535 and earlier touched 3.1736, the lowest since Jan. 3, while Indonesia’s rupiah declined 1.3 percent to 9,474.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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