Wednesday, 11 November 2015 13:48
TOKYO: The dollar retreated in Asia on Wednesday after rallying on last week’s US jobs data, as analysts said the latest economic figures from China failed to ease international anxiety over its economy.
High-yield, or riskier, emerging market currencies, including Indonesia’s rupiah and Malaysia’s ringgit, rose against the greenback throughout the day.
The dollar fell to 122.95 yen from 123.19 yen Tuesday in New York.
Official Chinese data on industrial production, retail sales and investment on Wednesday afternoon did not mean worries about the world’s number two economy are over, analysts said.
Growth in China’s industrial production fell to a six-month low of 5.6 percent in October, government data showed.
But retail sales, a key indicator of consumer spending, held up well for the month, jumping 11.0 percent from a year earlier.
Fixed asset investment, a measure of spending on infrastructure, expanded 10.2 percent year-on-year in the January-October period, official figures showed.
“The US dollar has retraced some of its post nonfarm-payroll strength, but this is likely due to profit-taking and the US holiday rather than a reassessment of dollar strength,” Khoon Goh, a senior currency strategist at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, told Bloomberg News.
Wednesday’s China data did “not show any pick-up in China’s growth momentum,” Goh added.
The US Federal Reserve has been widely tipped to hike borrowing rates as it looks to prevent bubbles appearing at home, despite ongoing weaknesses in global economy.
Last week’s bumper US jobs report ramped up speculation that central bank policymakers will announce a boost before the end of the year, which sent the dollar surging Friday and Monday.
The rupiah added 0.19 percent against the dollar, while the ringgit rose 0.26 percent, the South Korean won gained 0.17 percent and the Taiwan dollar advanced 0.24 percent.
The Thai baht was up 0.03 percent, and the Singapore dollar traded 0.05 percent higher.
In other currency trading, the euro traded mixed at $ 1.0752 and 132.20 yen from $ 1.0727 and 132.15 yen in US trade.
