Most countries manipulate their currencies – at least a little – but at the moment that’s not the real reason they are undervalued relative to the dollar.
Australia has more to fear than most countries from a global trade and currency war. All eyes will be on the Reserve Bank governor Friday as he attempts to outline what might happen.
The Australian dollar has already slipped, falling to its lowest point against the US since the global financial crisis.
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President Trump’s decision to slap tariffs on US$300 billion of China’s exports has set up a currency war that has engulfed Australia.
A supermarket in Caracas, Venezuela, in August 2018. The prospect of prices doubling every hour encourages those who can afford it to horde. Hence the empty shelves and shortages.
Miguel Gutiérrez/EPA
Venezuela’s hyperinflation has been caused by an inept public policy of printing more money and private individuals making the most of differences between official and unofficial exchange rates.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro created a new cryptocurrency called the ‘Petro’ to combat hyperinflation.
Reuters/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
When an elected leader turns autocratic, the economy tends to suffer. That’s because, in a functioning democracy, economic policy is made jointly, with lawmakers playing a key role.
A KFC in Harare, like many other shops, has shut down as a result of Zimbabwe’s financial crisis .
EPA-EFE/AARON UFUMELI
Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration is struggling to overcome the national economic destruction wreaked on Zimbabwe over two decades under Robert Mugabe.
The value of Argentina’s peso has plummeted in recent months.
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The London Interbank Offered Rates is one of the world’s key financial tools, but the 2008 rigging scandal has led to calls for its being phased out. Can we find better ways of building the LIBOR rate?
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin walks through the snow at Davos.
AP Photo/Markus Schreiber
China’s interventions to cheapen its currency relative to others will hurt US imports in the short term, but the country’s surging “mainstream” will easily offset the impact.