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Last Friday’s decision by the People’s Bank of China to raise interest rates gave a further boost to the Chinese yuan Monday as it strengthened to trade at 7.5652 against the US dollar.
Last week’s interest rate hike came in a bid to slow growth in the country’s burgeoning economy. Growth is now at 11.9 percent per annum, with inflation at 4.4 percent.
Meanwhile, inflation in Singapore is also on the up. It hit its highest level in a year in June.
Also in Asia, the Chinese government has launched a bid to buy a 7.7 percent stake in bank ABN Amro. The bid, along with a proposed 3.3 percent stake by Singapore’s Temasek, surprised analysts over the weekend.
On the stock market front, there were mixed results in Asia on Monday. The Chinese CSI 300 index was up 184.84 (4.7 percent) to 4,156.72. The Hang Seng index closed up 7366 points at 23,365.56.
However, in Singapore the Strait Times fell back into the red, down 16.03 to 3,635.35.
All in all, it was an encouraging day for the Asian markets, however the Japanese yen did weaken against the US dollar, unlike many of the other major currencies.
22:40
Posted on Jul-22-2007
