Jeffrey Halley , Senior Market Analyst , OANDA

03-Jan-20 07:05

Chinese equities started the year with a bang with the CSI300 Index is at a 23 month high on the back of the Required Reserve Ratio cut by 50bps as well as optimism over Phase 1 of a trade deal being signed, but will this continue in 2020?

And with China the first to adjust its monetary policy, making it more accommodative, will other central banks in the region follow suit?

On another note, the Thai Baht, which was one of the best performing currencies last year after appreciating 13% against the US Dollar, saw some sharp price movements yesterday. Did the central bank have anything to do with this?

Closer to home, Singapore released advanced GDP numbers which points to an annualised increase of 0.1% for the last quarter of the year, bringing the full year number to 0.7%, the slowest in a decade. With Phase 1 agreed upon, should we expect Singapore to do better going forward?