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Pakistan Panic: 3rd Currency Devaluation In 2018 Sends Sovereign Risk Soaring Above Argentina, Ukraine

June 22, 2018

Pakistan Panic: 3rd Currency Devaluation In 2018 Sends Sovereign Risk Soaring Above Argentina, Ukraine

While many of the world’s eyes are on the carnage in Argentina as EM collapses, Pakistan has quietly devalued the Rupee three times this year, amid tumbling reserves which has sparked enough investor anxiety to send CDS spiking.

Pakistan is now ‘riskier’ than Greece, Ukraine, and Argentina…

The country has been roiled by domestic political and economic turmoil and was not helped this week when Moody’s changed the outlook on Pakistan to negative from stable citing heightened external vulnerability risk.

Moody’s affirmed its B3 rating

Says foreign exchange reserves have fallen to low levels and will not be replenished over the next 12-18 months, absent significant capital inflows.

Moody’s says low reserve adequacy threatens continued access to external financing at moderate costs, in turn potentially raising government liquidity risks.

It certainly looks like they are losing control of the currency…

 

And to pile on – Pakistan’s main stock index – down 33% YTD in USD terms – just suffered a ‘death cross’…

Notably all of this carnage has accelerated since the start of January which coincided with Pakistan’s decision to ditch the dollar(following Trump’s remarks) and get closer to China.

“SBP has already put in place the required regulatory framework which facilitates use of CNY in trade and investment transactions,” the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said in a press release late Tuesday, ensuring that imports, exports and financing transactions can be denominated in the Chinese currency.

“The SBP, in the capacity of the policy maker of financial and currency markets, has taken comprehensive policy related measures to ensure that imports, exports and financing transactions can be denominated in yuan,” Dawn news, Pakistan’s most widely read English-language daily, announced while quoting the SBP press release.

sdf
Image source: WION News

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

What Could Dethrone the Dollar as Top Reserve Currency?

March 31, 2018

What Could Dethrone the Dollar as Top Reserve Currency?

Central banks seem leery about the Chinese yuan.

What will finally pull the rug out from under the dollar’s hegemony? The euro? The Chinese yuan? Cryptocurrencies? The Greek drachma? Whatever it will be, and however fervently the death-of-the-dollar folks might wish for it, it’s not happening at the moment, according to the most recent data.

The IMF just released its report, Currency Composition of Official Foreign Exchange Reserves (COFER) for the fourth quarter 2017. It should be said that the IMF is very economical with what it discloses. The COFER data for the individual countries – the total level of their reserve currencies and what currencies they hold – is “strictly confidential.” But we get to look at the global allocation by currency.

In Q4 2017, total global foreign exchange reserves, including all currencies, rose 6.6% year-over-year, or by $709 billion, to $11.42 trillion, right in the range of the past three years (from $10.7 trillion in Q4 2016 to $11.8 trillion in Q3, 2014). For reporting purposes, the IMF converts all currency balances into dollars.

Dollar-denominated assets among foreign exchange reserves rose 14% year-over-year in Q4 to $6.28 trillion, and are up 42% from Q4 2014. There is no indication that global central banks have lost interest in the dollar; on the contrary:

Over the decades, there have been some efforts to topple the dollar’s hegemony as a global reserve currency, which it has maintained since World War II. The creation of the euro was the most successful such effort. Back in the day, the euro was supposed to reach “parity” with the dollar on the hegemony scale. And it edged up for a while until the euro debt crisis derailed those dreams.

And now there’s the ballyhooed Chinese yuan. Effective October 1, 2016, the IMF added it to its currency basket, the Special Drawing Rights (SDR). This anointed the yuan as a global reserve currency.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Always Watched, Always Monitored, Always Recorded

March 2, 2016

Always Watched, Always Monitored, Always Recorded 

Trade Slump

BALTIMORE – When we left you yesterday, we were discussing the War on Cash – the push by governments to abolish physical currency. It is a fraud. The idea is not to fight crime or boost the economy, as its proponents claim. It is part of a bigger campaign by the Deep State to take more control over your money… and your life.

We’ll return to our theme in a moment. But first… an update on the markets and the economy. It came out last week that world trade did indeed fall in 2015. It was the first time this had happened since 2009.

CATThe decline in sales of “yellow machines” has turned out to be a meaningful signal…   Photo credit: Caterpillar Tractor Company

Starting at the end of last year, we began following the trains, trucks, ships, and sales of “yellow machines” – backhoes, loaders, bulldozers, etc. – and watching them all slow down.

Sure enough, they were telling us something important. Reports the Financial Times:

“The value of goods that crossed international borders last year fell 14% in dollar terms.” 

Most notably, a decline in world trade means China is not exporting as much merchandise as before. This, we guessed, would mean a greater outflow of foreign exchange reserves from China’s central bank… and make it more difficult for it to prop up the exchange value of the renminbi.

global tradeThe dollar value of global trade has slumped to the depths of the 2008/9 crisis low

A country accumulates foreign exchange reserves when it exports more than it imports. In the case of China, dollars, euro, etc… flow into the country in exchange for Chinese-made goods. This foreign currency builds up as reserves at the central bank. It can then dip into this stash to buy its own currency and prop up its value.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Benn Steil: Could China Have a Reserves Crisis?

February 16, 2016

BENN STEIL: COULD CHINA HAVE A RESERVES CRISIS?

China reserves
Last summer, U.S. lawmakers were condemning China for pushing down its currency, arguing that it was still “terribly undervalued.” But those days may be long gone.  Chinese and foreigners alike have been stampeding out of RMB, leaving the Chinese central bank struggling to keep its value up and prevent a rout.

The People’s Bank of China has been selling off foreign currency reserves at a prodigious rate to keep the RMB stable.  At $3.2 trillion, China’s reserves still seem enormous.  But they are down $760 billion from their 2014 peak, and $300 billion in just the past three months.  As shown in the figure above, at the current pace of decline China’s reserves will, according to the IMF’s framework for reserve adequacy, actually fall to a dangerously low level in the spring.  This means that China would be at risk of a balance-of-payments crisis, unable to pay for essential imports or service its dollar debt payments.

China has for years been pursuing what has been called the “Impossible Trinity”: controlling interest and exchange rates while leaving the capital account significantly open.  Chinese residents are permitted to send up to $50,000 overseas annually – this is enough to allow trillions in outflows.  So what can China do to staunch the rapid decline in reserves?

It could impose tighter capital controls, as Bank of Japan governor Haruhiko Kuroda controversially urged it to do.  As shown in the figure, this would allow China to operate safely with fewer reserves.  But it would also put a halt to China’s plans to transform the RMB into a major reserve currency.

China could also raise interest rates, which might encourage capital inflows and discourage outflows, but this would hurt growth in an already sinking economy.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Why Moody’s Cut Russia to Two Notches above Junk | Wolf Street

October 20, 2014

Why Moody’s Cut Russia to Two Notches above Junk | Wolf Street.

It was not the most productive summit in the history of mankind. President Vladimir Putin, after watching a military parade in Belgrade, Serbia, and questioning Kosovo’s independence, arrived in Milan on Friday so late that Chancellor Angela Merkel, with whom a private meeting had been scheduled, had to cool her heels for hours. Once done at 2 a.m., he headed over to his buddy’s place, persona non grata in EU politics, Silvio Berlusconi. But the Russian economy was not amused.

Russians know that the ruble is in trouble, and are not so naïve to think that their currency will start to strengthen again soon. Countless factors point in favor of further depreciation, not least the inability of Russian entities to borrow from international markets, recent marked falls in oil prices, and expectations of future US rate hikes…. Government estimates that capital flight is likely to reach between $90-120 billion this year look too conservative to us.

[A]s ever with Russia, there are countless risks. What if capital flight accelerates to rates well beyond expectations to generate genuine unease about the adequacy of the CBR’s [Central Bank of Russia] reserves? What if the ruble is completely irresponsive to interest rate hikes, and simply depreciates rapidly further beyond the CBR’s comfort zone, fueling a jump in inflation into double digits? And what if companies, already unable to borrow from international markets because of sanctions, struggle to meet debt repayments? And – perhaps most obviously – what if the geopolitical situation, which is well beyond the control of the CBR, further deteriorates?

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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