Exchange Rate Now!

The People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said today that the Chinese Yuan might be “fine-tuned” to manage the after effect ripples from the global financial crisis which started in Oct 2008.

His comments raised eye-brows because it is not common for Chinese officials to comment on the valuation of the Renminbi as well as the fact that it had been some 18 months since the financial crisis stuck. Are such comments belated?

Regardless of the timeliness of his comments, forex traders would be interested to know the impact of forex market. Currently, 1 U.S. dollar = 6.826 Chinese yuan and it is very unclear whether the fine-tuning means the appreciation or depreciation of the Chinese Yuan (RMB). Most analyst expect the yuan to gradually appreciate over time, which several hedge funds expect to see more signs (more…)

Like its middle east cousins, the Omani Rial is highly valued against the US dollar and currently ranks the third most expensive currency in the world, just behind the Kuwaiti Dinar and the Bahraini Dinar. This ranking is unlikely to change in the medium, as the Omani Rial (OMR) is pegged against the US dollar and well supported by the Oman Central Bank.

Currently, 1 Omani Rial (OMR) = 2.5974 US dollars (USD), or 1 USD compared against 0.3845 Omani Rial.

There are many benefits of pegging the Omani Rial against the US Dollar. For one, this pegs prevents fluctuations and speculations which the country cannot afford. In addition, Oman has the necessary reserves to prevent just that. Finally, having the peg frees important government resource into more growth areas like interior development and in specific, further redefining the usage of oil money (more…)

It hardly sound like an enviable name – PIGS. Yet, this is the exact term creatively coined by some journalist which represents the 4 nations in Europe which currently faces the real possibility of financial collapse.

P – Portugal
I – Ireland
G – Greece
S – Spain

It is amazing how Portugal and Spain came to be liken to a financial weakling but years of accumulating debts, borrowings and poor financial controls brought it to the same state with Greece. Amongst the European Union now, leaders must be asking themselves what should be the collective next steps instead of just verbatim. The next step would really have to be (more…)