Finance & economics | Reserve judgment

Big Asian economies take on the forces of international capital—and win

They are now rebuilding their arsenals

EFEPCX Seoul, South Korea city skyline.
Image: Alamy
|Singapore

Battling currency markets used to be considered unwise by central bankers and policymakers. Burning foreign-exchange reserves to take on the forces that push and pull a currency’s value was foolish, so the thinking went, and almost certainly futile. Orthodoxy held that a country seeking to defend its currency should raise interest rates, not sell reserves.

This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Reserve judgment”

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