Vietnam Dong Slumps to Record Low as Adviser Warns of ‘Shock’

By Bloomberg News

Aug. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Vietnam’s currency dropped for a fourth straight day to a record low after an adviser to the Prime Minister said the country risks a foreign-currency liquidity ‘shock.’

The warning came after the central bank yesterday devalued the currency for a third time in the past year to boost exports and shore up the nation’s trade deficit that has nearly doubled in the seven months through July. The currency has slumped 5.2 percent in 2010, the worst performance among 16 currencies in Asia monitored by Bloomberg. Forwards contracts signal traders are betting on an 8.5 percent drop in the coming year.

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BNM - Liberalisation of the Foreign Exchange Administration Rules

Liberalisation of the Foreign Exchange Administration Rules

As part of Bank Negara Malaysia's continued effort to enhance flexibility of the economy, the Bank wishes to announce the further liberalisation of administrative rules on foreign exchange transactions. This aims to promote greater efficiency in the conduct of international trade and a conducive business environment in Malaysia so as to strengthen the linkages with the regional and global economies.

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Yuan Eclipsed in Beijing Talks by Europe, North Korea

By Bloomberg News

May 26 (Bloomberg) -- U.S.-China talks set up primarily to head off bilateral disputes focused much of the past two days on threats to global stability, as Europe’s debt crisis and military tension on the Korean peninsula overtook the agenda.

About 200 U.S. officials yesterday wrapped up meetings in Beijing as the euro’s decline to an eight-year low against the yen and a 4.7 percent plunge in the won overshadowed sparring on trade and China’s control of its exchange rate. The external distractions, both financial and geopolitical, prompted talk of closer cooperation between what will likely be the world’s two largest economies by year end.

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U.S., China Sidestep Yuan as Europe Dominates Talks

By Bloomberg News | May 25, 2010

May 25 (Bloomberg) -- China and the U.S. focused their first day of talks in Beijing on joint efforts to prop up the world’s economy in the face of a European sovereign-debt crunch that pushed off a showdown on the yuan’s value. 

Officials “spent quite a bit of time discussing the European debt crisis,” Chinese central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said at a press briefing. The nation’s currency policy is being “touched upon” at the talks, he said. 

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Fears Intensify That Euro Crisis Could Snowball

May 16, 2010 | by Nelson D. Scwartz and Eric Dash | www.nytimes.com

After a brief respite following the announcement last week of a nearly $1 trillion bailout plan for Europe, fear in the financial markets is building again, this time over worries that the Continent’s biggest banks face strains that will hobble European economies.

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Europe’s Debt Crisis Casts a Shadow Over China

May 17 2010 | by Keith Bradsher | www.nytimes.com

HONG KONG — The pain of the European debt crisis is spreading as the plummeting euro makes Chinese companies less competitive in Europe, their largest market, and complicates any move to break the Chinese currency’s peg to the dollar.

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Monetary Conditions To Be Normalised At A Measured Pace And The Ringgit Will Likely Fluctuate At RM3.20-3.30/US$

◆ Countries across the Asia Pacific have stepped up their efforts to normalise their monetary conditions. The normalisation of monetary conditions, in our view, aims to prevent asset prices and financial imbalances from building up in some countries and to address rising inflationary pressures in others.

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