HALISTER1: INSIDE ASIA: Thai Growth Surprises; China Data Miss Estimates

INSIDE ASIA: Thai Growth Surprises; China Data Miss Estimates

(Bloomberg) -- Asian currencies mixed, with Thai baht and Chinese yuan among gainers, while Korean won leads declines following dollar rally on strong U.S. retail sales.
  • Japanese yen and Malaysian ringgit also lower vs dollar
  • Asian EM currencies are under slight downward pressure due to firmer dollar, says Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ analyst Teppei Ino; however doesn’t see trend for weakness, expects Asian EM currencies to be resilient for now
  • Dollar Index up 0.03% following 0.9% gain Thursday-Friday
  • Baht rises after falling every day last week; currency extends gains after Thai 1Q GDP beats forecast, growing 3.2% y/y vs 2.8% in 4Q and 2.8% est.
  • Won falls to weakest in two months
    • S. Korea’s National Pension Service aims to increase overseas investment to more than 35% of total assets by end-2021 from 24.3% last yr: Ministry of Health and Welfare
    • President Park appoints Lee Won-Jong as chief of staff
  • Ringgit weakens for second day; SocGen says go long on 7-yr Malaysia bonds, pay 7-yr MYR NDIRS
    • Federal cabinet to be restructured in near future, PM Najib says over weekend
  • Philippine peso little changed
    • Central bank deputy governor Guinigundo says interest- rate corridor very wide and asymmetric; BSP to introduce term deposit auction facility and annnounce rate corridor numbers this afternoon
    • March overseas remittances data due today; est. +1.1% y/y vs +9.1% in Feb.
  • China’s yuan rises; PBOC cuts yuan fixing to weakest since March 3, by 0.15% to 6.5343 per dollar; data over weekend missed ests.; China stocks extend decline
    • April industrial output rose 6.0% y/y vs est. 6.5%; retail sales rose 10.1% vs est. 10.6%; Jan.-April fixed- asset investment excluding rural households up 10.5% vs est. 11.0%
    • China CFETS RMB Index rose 0.37 point on-week to 96.98 as of May 13
  • Yen falls; Prime Minister Abe says fiscal measures may be needed to create demand; Nikkei reported Saturday that Abe will postpone sales tax increase
    • BOJ Governor Kuroda to appear at parliament committee
    • April PPI fell 4.2% y/y in April vs est. -3.7% y/y
  • Indonesia rupiah declines before April trade balance, est. $168m, prior $497m; exports; est. -10.90% y/y, prior -13.51%; imports est. -8.67%, prior -10.41%
Alert: HALISTER1
Source: BFW (Bloomberg First Word)

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Teppei Ino (Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd/The)

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