Asia Has Crisis to Thank for Gains in Emerging Rout: Currencies
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A decade and a half of good housekeeping is spurring Asian currencies from Indonesia’s rupiah to Thailand’s baht as investors increasingly differentiate between emerging-market assets.
Of more than 20 developing-nation exchange rates tracked by Bloomberg, the rupiah, baht and Singapore dollar were the only ones to have gained this year through yesterday, while options prices show Asian currencies are best placed to ride out further losses. Investors are most pessimistic about Argentina’s peso, which was devalued last month, and Turkey’s lira, after the country’s rating outlook was cut by Standard & Poor’s less than two weeks ago.