Asian currencies firmed on Monday after US President Donald Trump delayed increasing tariffs on $200 million of imports from China after "productive" trade negotiations, which boosted risk appetites. Early on Monday, the yuan rose as much as 0.6 percent on the Trump news, taking the Chinese currency to its strongest level in over seven months. Trump on Sunday said he would delay a March 1 deadline for hiking tariffs to 25 percent from 10 percent and would meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to seal a trade deal if progress continued.
The trade fight between the world's largest economies has impacted global growth and weighed on emerging Asian units since last year. "Declaration of an extension of the trade deal deadline brought cheer to markets looking for an excuse to look at the half-full glass", Vishnu Varathan, senior economist at Mizuho Bank in Singapore, said a note to clients.
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's comment that US and Chinese officials had reached an agreement on currency issues, helped fuel gains in the yuan. The South Korean won and the Indonesian rupiah firmed 0.4 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively. Also gaining against the dollar was the Indian rupee and the Malaysian ringgit, while the Taiwan dollar was marginally up.
Containing gains in the Taiwan dollar was government data on Friday showing the trade-reliant island's export orders contracted in January for a third straight month, adding to evidence of a global tech slowdown.
The Singapore dollar was slightly stronger against the greenback on Monday. Data showed the country's headline inflation rate increased in January at a slower than expected pace.
The headline all-items consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.4 percent from a year earlier, slower than the median forecast in a Reuters poll of 0.6 percent and December's 0.5 percent reading.
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