S-E Asian currencies hammered in wobbly quarter, woes persist

Singapore

AS battered regional currencies bid adieu to one rough quarter, another rocky one awaits with fear factors such as China's slowdown and a commodity slump showing no signs of going away.

And if one agrees with economists' view that the softening global growth is less tied to cycles and more to do with structural forces (read: debt or credit which powered much of Asia's growth), it appears that the gloomy picture amid a looming US rate hike could outlast the coming quarter.

"Asia has been hurt hard by a turn in sentiments," said Jameel Ahmad, chief market analyst at ForexTime (FXTM). He does not reckon that the new quarter is going to contain these pressures.

Recently released poor Chinese industrial data has re-ignited worries that the sluggish economy, the world's second largest, will prolong the commodity slump and crimp growth in other countries. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in a recent report that falling commodity prices could shave off one percentage point of growth annually from commodity exporters and 2.25 percentage points off energy-exporting nation…