The US dollar rose from a 13-year low against the yen on speculation the Bush administration would use funds intended for financial institutions to rescue General Motors Corp and Chrysler LLC.
The yen pared its gain against major currencies on speculation investors will sell higher-yielding assets and pay back low-cost loans in Japan’s currency at a slower pace. The British pound weakened to a record low against the euro for a fifth day after HBOS Plc said bad loans will keep rising as credit conditions deteriorate.
The dollar traded at ¥91.07 in New York, compared with ¥91.45 the previous day, after dropping as much as 3.2 percent to ¥88.53, the lowest level since August 1995. The euro fell 0.2 percent to ¥121.82 from 122.09. The currency was quoted at US$1.3377, compared with US$1.3352.
Meanwhile, Asian currencies climbed this week, led by the South Korean won and the Indonesian rupiah, on optimism that interest-rate cuts and economic stimulus plans would revive demand for emerging-market assets.
All of the 10 most-active regional currencies strengthened this week as the Dollar Index slumped the most in at least a decade. The Malaysian ringgit touched a one-month high and the Philippine peso reached the strongest since Oct. 15.
South Korea, Japan and China said they enhanced their currency swap arrangements to ensure stability in the foreign-exchange market.
The won rose as much as 10 percent, the most since October, before paring gains to 7.5 percent to 1,372.50 per dollar, Seoul Money Brokerage Services Ltd said.
The yuan strengthened 0.56 percent last week to 6.8427 a dollar in Shanghai from 6.8812 at the end of last week, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System.
Thailand’s baht capped its best week in more than a year as the biggest cut in interest rates on record spurred optimism the economy will weather the global slump.
Malaysia’s ringgit headed for its biggest weekly gain since the end of a dollar peg in 2005, rising 1.5 percent this week to 3.5825.
The New Taiwan dollar advanced 0.7 percent to NT$33.315 against the US currency. The Philippine peso climbed 2 percent to 48.105.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
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