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Asia’s New Tiger Economy Fears Currency Slide

  • Myanmar is leading the region with growth exceeding 8%
  • Currency weakness is an economic risk, official says
The Sule Pagoda stands illuminated in Yangon, Myanmar.

The Sule Pagoda stands illuminated in Yangon, Myanmar.

Photographer: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg
Kyaw Thu
Updated on

Myanmar’s central bank is braced for a deeper slide in the nation’s currency and has little scope to tackle the decline after the kyat fell the most in Southeast Asia, according to one of the monetary authority’s top officials.

The kyat has weakened about 10 percent against the dollar in the past six months, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The drop could deepen if the U.S. Federal Reserve increases interest rates this month as expected, said U Win Thaw, the director general of the foreign-exchange management department in the Central Bank of Myanmar.