The News Review:

- Forex – Dollar falls further vs euro, yen in Tokyo trading on credit…
- Poverty in Africa
- Japan finance minister says concerned over yen’s ‘excessive…
- End of the 9% growth dream
- Asian currencies fall as investors sell stocks
- Oil multinationals pumped $400m into banking system in February

Forex – Dollar falls further vs euro, yen in Tokyo trading on credit…
Forbes – Mar 16, 2008
The dollar fell as low as 96. 45 yen, a level not seen since August 1995, while the euro hit a fresh lifetime high of 1. JPMorgan Chase said Sunday it will acquire rival Bear Stearns in an all-share deal valued at 236.

Poverty in Africa
ghanaweb.com – Mar 16, 2008
In other words, the currency of one country is exchanged for those of another. In excess of 85 percent of all daily transactions involve trading of the major currencies. Four major currency pairs are usually used for investment purposes… They are: Euro against US dollar, US dollar against Japanese yen, British pound against US dollar, and US dollar against Swiss franc. You may consider them as “blue chips” of the FOREX market. No dividends are paid on currencies. The investment profits come from well known “buy low – sell high”. If you think one currency will appreciate against another, you may exchange that second currency for the first one and stay in it. In case everything goes as planned, some time later you may make the opposite deal – exchange this first currency back for that other – and collect profits.

Japan finance minister says concerned over yen’s ‘excessive…
Forbes – Mar 16, 2008
Although the White House says it favors a strong dollar, analysts say that Washington appears comfortable with a weaker greenback as it helps US exporters. ‘President Bush has said the strong dollar suits the interests of the United States,’ said spokesman Machimura. ‘While taking into account the position of the United States, the government has strong concerns’ over forex market movements, Machimura said. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News. Neither the Subscriber nor AFX News warrants the completeness or accuracy of the Service or the suitability of the Service as a trading aid and neither accepts any liability for losses howsoever incurred.

End of the 9% growth dream
Times of India – Mar 16, 2008
Americans borrowed ever more billions against their rising
property values, and went on a spending spree that greatly exceeded their
disposable incomes. The mirror image
of this was rising trade surpluses (and hence forex reserves) in other
countries. These forex surpluses were used to buy US securities, depressing US
interest rates and making borrowing even more attractive. Americans borrowed
still more, spent still more, and imported still more. This created a huge
consumption-based growth cycle across the globe. The US consumer splurge was
especially helpful to China, the most competitive exporter of manufactures,
which grew rapidly through an export boom… The mirror image
of this was rising trade surpluses (and hence forex reserves) in other
countries. These forex surpluses were used to buy US securities, depressing US
interest rates and making borrowing even more attractive. Americans borrowed
still more, spent still more, and imported still more. This created a huge
consumption-based growth cycle across the globe. The US consumer splurge was
especially helpful to China, the most competitive exporter of manufactures,
which grew rapidly through an export boom. India, which exported competitive
services, also benefited.

Asian currencies fall as investors sell stocks
Taipei Times – Mar 16, 2008
“The rupiah will stay weaker as long as we have these risk-aversion fears and oil prices get just higher and higher everyday,” said Catherine Tan, head of regional foreign exchange at Thomson Financial in Singapore. “Equities were sold off quite a bit so there’s outflow fear. ”
The New Taiwan dollar ended the week at NT$30. 75 on March 7, Taipei Forex Inc figures show. In the Philippines, the peso dropped 1. 7 percent this week to 41.

Oil multinationals pumped $400m into banking system in February
Vanguard – Mar 16, 2008
The record low for the month in review came about as a result of injection of about 400 million dollars into the banking system by the oil multinationals (Shell & Chevron). The naira rise against the dollar has also been largely attributed to dollar liquidity in the economy as well as investors scrambling for Nigeria’s gas resources due to the success of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), and rising demand for LNG in the North Atlantic Basin. EXCHANGE RATE (WDAS): Available data from the CBN shows that the wholesale Dutch Auction System recorded a significant decrease in the amount of Forex sold to banks by the CBN. For the month of February, a total of $65,000,000. 00 was sold as against $369,385,466. This indicates an 82.