Remain bearish on US dollar & bullish on rupee: Scotiabank

The US dollar tanks the most in 10-months after US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says that a weak dollar is good for American trade. Markets will now be watching for Mnuchin to clarify his comments when he appears in a panel at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos today.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Qi Gao, Fx Strategist-EM Asia at Scotiabank shared his views and outlook on the same.

We remain bearish on US dollar. Most Asian currencies will benefit from synchronised global growth, in particular, some export driven economies, like Singapore dollar, like Korean won, he said.

China’s economic growth rebounded last year and will continue this year, he added.

We also remain bullish on the Indian rupee. Now we are waiting for Union Budget 2018 and expect that the Central Government to stick to fiscal consolidation and we see economic recovery in India, said Gao.

It is not for the first time that the US Treasury Secretary spoke in favour of the weak dollar. I think he particularly likes weak dollar, the comment is not new, he further mentioned.

We expect dollar could be even weaker, we can see dollar index decline further, Gao said.

According to him, dollar index might fall to 88 and rupee to reach to 62 per dollar by end of the year.

For full interview, watch accompanying video...