Bloomberg has reported a steep decline in the value of Southeast Asian currencies last month, seeing them sink to a 10-year low. The slide in local currencies — which includes those of Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand — means that the service cost of overseas debt denominated in US dollars for regional businesses, banks and governments has rocketed. Next year, Southeast Asian currencies will have to spend 8 percent more repaying their US dollar bond debt — an increase of almost US$20 billion.
The depreciation of Southeast Asian currencies against the dollar and the resulting mushrooming in the cost of overseas borrowing is reminiscent of the situation prior to the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, which was later dubbed by economists Barry Eichengreen and Ricardo Hausmann as “original sin.”
As of last Wednesday, since the beginning of this month the Malaysian ringgit has crashed by approximately 6.3 percent, while the Indonesian rupiah has fallen almost 3.7 percent, the Philippine peso by nearly 2.7 percent, and the Singaporean dollar by almost 2.5 percent, while the Thai baht has fallen by approximately 1.6 percent.
Photo: Reuters
照片:路透社
(Liberty Times, translated by Edward Jones)
彭博報導,東南亞國家貨幣本月以來重貶至十年來最弱水準,包括馬來西亞幣、印尼盾、菲律賓披索、新加坡元、泰銖在內,促使本地區企業、銀行及政府在海外以美元計價債務償還成本大幅升高,東南亞國家美元債券明年還款金額將激增百分之八,至近二百億美元。
東南亞貨幣兌美元的貶勢造成海外借貸還債成本高漲,猶如一九九七年亞洲金融危機後經濟學者艾森格林和郝斯曼所稱「原罪」。
根據彭博統計,十一月迄至二十八日止,馬幣已狂貶約百分之六點三、印尼盾貶近百分之三點七、菲律賓披索貶近百分之二點七、新元貶約百分之二點五、泰銖也貶近百分之一點六。
(自由時報)
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Around the time of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, the streets of Taiwan are filled with the delightful aroma of zongzi, a traditional snack made of sticky rice wrapped in leaves. The leaves are folded into a cone and then filled with sticky rice and other ingredients such as braised pork belly, peanuts and salted duck egg yolks. The filled leaves are then tightly tied with kitchen twine and ready for cooking. 每到六月端午時節,街頭巷尾就會飄出粽子的香氣。粽子是將糯米包進粽葉的傳統美食,先將粽葉折成圓錐狀塞入糯米,以及紅燒肉、花生、鹹鴨蛋黃等配料,用棉線綁緊後即可烹煮。 Dragon Boat Festival (n. phr.) 端午節 aroma
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