US Federal Reserve (Fed) raises rates for the first time in nearly ten years by 25bps, to 0.25-0.50%. The future path of rate hikes is now the most important element of US monetary policy and will be the key for US Dollar (USD) direction The Fed finally raises ratesIn a… Read More »
Why does China want the RMB to be a reserve currency? What is a Reserve Currency?It is a currency that is held in significant quantities by governments and institutions as part of their foreign exchange reserves. As Maurice Obstfeld, currently Director of Research at the IMF, has written: “International reserve… Read More »
The term “currency war” may sound like sensationalism. But the series of competitive devaluations in global currency markets over the past several years have essentially created a series of global currency battles. The Fed Fired First It was the US who fired the first shot back in 2008 when the… Read More »
Broadly in line with Barclays’ expectations, the Riksbank kept its repo rate unchanged at -0.35% and decided to expand its QE programme. Citing considerable global uncertainty and rising expectations that central banks abroad would likely pursue even more expansionary monetary policy, the Riksbank decided to expand its QE programme by… Read More »
The debate over the outlook for rates and central bank stimulus (alongside uncertainty over the Chinese economic growth path) continues to be the dominant driver of G10 currency pairs As a result, volatility remains a key fear for investors across asset markets and currencies have not been overlooked.Nonetheless, currency volatility… Read More »
A dovish FOMC may provide a reprieve, but EM FX weakness is not just about the Fed. After the body blows of August, EM FX has experienced some relief over the past week on the back of stability in the CNY and the prospect of a dovish FOMC. In the… Read More »
The recent fall of stock markets triggered by the Chinese economic problems only confirms the slowness with which investors notice the consequences of long going macro trends. I believe that the correction in August has finally broken the upward trend of stock exchanges and markets will unlikely be able to… Read More »
The yuan fell by 1.9% against the US dollar on 11 August. At first glance, this engineered devaluation by the People’s Bank of China appeared benign. When Argentina abandoned its peg to the US dollar in 2001, the peso dropped 40% in a day. Switzerland’s move to scrap the Swiss… Read More »
On August 11, China’s central bank, PBOC, announced that it had decided to improve its central parity system so that the exchange rate of the Chinese renminbi against the U.S. dollar would better reflect the market situation. In China’s spot foreign exchange market, the Yuan is allowed to rise or… Read More »
The devaluation of the Chinese yuan is unlikely to mark the start of competitive currency devaluations coming to Asia Yes, the move was clearly forced by real economic forces, but I do not believe, this is the start of an imminent series of future devaluations from China. Why? I am… Read More »