Currencies Ease As Aid Hopes Fade
Asian currencies were weak but off their lows on Friday as hopes of intervention by the Group of Seven (G7) to shore up Asia's ailing currencies diminished.
US Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin said ahead of a G7 meeting of finance ministers and central bankers in London thisweekend the group would press Japan to play a bigger role in helping Asia recover. He declined to comment on the possibility of the G7 discussing foreign market intervention, a hope which fuelled Asian currencies on Thursday.
This lingering hope of some form of aid was limiting the slides in the regional currencies, dealers said. Trading in the Indonesian rupiah, which came under heavy speculative attacks following President Suharto's controversial proposal to install a currency board system, was almost at a standstill.
Activity was also stymied by hopes the G7's communiqu