Bullish bets on the Singapore dollar and the Malaysian ringgit further consolidated to scale five-year highs as a fizzling U.S. dollar rally and China’s pivot from its strict COVID-19 curbs boosted investor appetite for Asian emerging currencies.
Last week, the Malaysian central bank surprised the market by standing pat on its benchmark interest rate after four consecutive hikes in 2022, while Bank Indonesia signaled its tightening cycle was ending owing to cooling inflation.
The Singapore dollar, the only Asian currency to have appreciated last year, has also started 2023 on a strong footing, advancing 2.1 percednt so far to trade at its highest since April 2018. Separately, the U.S. Federal Reserve will start its two-day policy meeting next week, and markets have priced in a 25-basis-point interest rate hike, a step down from the central bank’s 50 bp and 75 bp increases seen last year.
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