Asian investors have been rushing to shield themselves from big swings in the US dollar, putting upward pressure on their local currencies and forcing Hong Kong authorities to intervene in the market.
Taiwan’s dollar has surged almost 6 per cent against the greenback this month, posting the biggest single-day moves since the 1980s, while Hong Kong’s monetary authority spent the largest weekly amount since 2020 to stop the city state’s currency strengthening beyond a US dollar peg.
“It is not even once in a decade — it has been a once in a lifetime event. It has been an extraordinary move” in the Taiwan dollar in particular, said Mark Ledger-Evans, a portfolio manager at emerging markets investment firm Ninety One.