Today, January 25, the currencies of a number of Southeast Asian countries have fallen significantly against the dollar due to growing investor concern about the state of the Chinese economy. The Philippine peso, Indonesian rupiah and Malaysian ringgit hit three-month lows against the US dollar. The rates of the Thai baht and the Australian dollar fell to a two-month low.
Experts explain investor sentiment by saying that the economies of Asian countries are strongly linked to China, so any slowdown in economic activity in China will also affect them. For example, in December, the PMI – the index of manufacturing activity – in China fell to 49 points, thus, the decline in this indicator has continued for the third month in a row.
“In these countries (South Korea) -East Asia and the Asia-Pacific region as a whole.— “Kommersant”) key economic sectors that generate a significant share of foreign exchange earnings are connected with China – from coal and iron ore mining in Australia to electronics manufacturing in the Philippines and tourism in Thailand,” Toru Nishihama, chief economist at the Dai-ichi Life Research Institute, told the Japanese agency Nikkei. According to IMF estimates, in 2022 alone, about 30% of all exports from Australia and 20% of South Korean exports went to China.
Yesterday it became known that the Central Bank of China will begin a monetary policy program on February 5 easing to stimulate the economy. In addition, according to media reports, due to capital flight, Chinese authorities have limited the access of retail investors to funds investing in foreign securities.
On the results of the development of the Chinese economy in 2023 year, Kommersant wrote in the publication “China is no longer in a hurry.”
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