The World Bank's leading Economist, Bert Hofman said that it is early days for Asia to launch monetary integration. Hofman said that discussion on integration in Asia has been going on since the Asian financial crisis in the 1990s, with the involvement of the Asian Development Bank. However, Hofman pointed out problems that need to be resolved before pursuing integration. Insufficient trade and service intergration is another obstacle.
Singapore’s Minister for Trade and Industry, Lim Hng Kiang expressed confidence in the country achieving the government's targeted GDP growth rate of 4% to 6% this year. Channel NewsAsia quoted Kiang as saying that the economy is expected to grow stronger in the first half of 2006 than in the second half, when global economic growth is forecast to slow down. However, Kiang said that the slowdown in the latter half of the year will not be sharp, as low unemployment, strong job creation, a strong retail sector, and upbeat domestic mood, will drive growth.
Remittances to Salvadoran families from expatriates living in the USA stood at $759.6 million in the first quarter of 2006, up 13.3% year-on-year, according to data from the Central Bank of El Salvador. The bank attributed the increase in remittances to an increase in the employment rate for Hispanics in the USA, which fell to 5.4% in the first quarter of 2006.
The Mexican peso will weaken faced with the electoral process and higher US interest rates, and there will be “controlled-volatility” episodes during the next few weeks, economists said. A third variable that puts the Mexican peso in a sensitive position is the recent reduction in peso positions on the Chicago futures market. Since March, investors have closed positions and bet against the Mexican currency.
The assets of Polish open pension funds rose by 36.9% to a total of 86.3 billion Polish zloty’s (22.1 billion euros) during 2005, the Central Statistical Office said on Friday. According to the Statistical Office, the sector posted a combined 10.3 million zloty profit last year, up 46.2% over the year, despite a 2.2% decline in the number of registered members of the pension funds. All funds achieved the minimum rate of return required by law for the 2004 to 2005 period, set at 26.2%.
The Kazakh national currency, the tenge, hit an all-time high against the dollar on Friday, reaching 122.92 tenge to the dollar. Turnover on Kazakhstan Stock Exchange reached a record $362.43 million the same day. The strengthening of the tenge was due to speculation by Kazakh commercial banks and the absence of the central bank, the National Bank of Kazakhstan, from the market. The National Bank had been buying foreign currency to avoid sharp fluctuations in the tenge-dollar exchange rate, but abandoned this on the IMF’s recommendation.