EMFX unlikely to reverse 2024 losses over the next six months
Repeats earlier story for wider readership with no change to text
reuters://realtime/verb=Open/url=cpurl://apps.cp./Apps/fx-polls?RIC=CNY= yuan poll data
reuters://realtime/verb=Open/url=cpurl://apps.cp./Apps/fx-polls?RIC=ZAR= rand poll data
reuters://realtime/verb=Open/url=cpurl://apps.cp./Apps/fx-polls?RIC=INR= rupee poll data
reuters://realtime/verb=Open/url=cpurl://apps.cp./Apps/fx-polls?RIC=TRY= lira poll data
reuters://realtime/verb=Open/url=cpurl://apps.cp./Apps/fx-polls?RIC=RUB= rouble poll data
By Vuyani Ndaba and Devayani Sathyan
JOHANNESBURG/BENGALURU, July 3 (Reuters) -Emerging market currencies will not reverse this year's losses against a resilient dollar in the next six months as China's economy struggles and the U.S. Federal Reserve holds back on interest rate cuts, according to a Reuters poll.
With the Fed not expected to cut rates as many times as financial markets had predicted at the beginning of the year, from around six then to just two now, that has left most emerging currencies vulnerable against a strong dollar.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Tuesday that although the U.S. was back on a "disinflationary path" policymakers will need more data before they start cutting interest rates.
The dollar index .DXY is up 4.3% this year and was predicted to stay strong in the near term. EUR/POLL
Almost all emerging market currencies surveyed were forecast to not recoup the losses already made this year in the next three to six months, according to the June 28-July 3 survey of over 58 foreign exchange strategists.
China's troubled property sector is likely to weigh heavily on the economic and currency performance in the world's second-biggest economy, boding ill for the performance of other emerging market currencies. It remains the single biggest trading partner to many nations.
"We look for more depreciation of the yuan and Chinese growth is unlikely to pick up significantly in the months ahead, that also means less upside for the rest of Asia," said Mitul Kotecha, head of FX & EM macro strategy Asia at Barclays.
The tightly controlled Chinese yuan CNY= is expected to gain 0.3% by the end of 2024,after dropping 2.4% against the greenback so far this year.
"The overall outlook is still for more downside pressure in the next three to six months for EM currencies. Broadly the two main factors that will drive EM currencies continues to be dollar strength and relatively high U.S. rates," Kotecha added.
This is despite a small loss of around 1% in the emerging market currency index .MIEM00000CUS in which the yuan plays a big part.
China's economy was expected to drive EM currencies into gains at the start of this year when its economy opened wider after strict COVID-19 restrictions were relaxed.
Some major EM currencies such as the Indonesian rupiah IDR=, Korean won KRW=, Thai Bhat THB=, Singapore dollar SGD=, Taiwan dollar TWD= and Philippine peso PHP= were expected to gain between 1%-3% by the end of the year.
However, those gains would still be minuscule compared to the losses this year to date.
The Indian rupee INR=, which has stood out as the most stable among EM currencies, is set to trade within a narrow range over the year. INR/POLL
South Africa's rand ZAR=D3, is predicted to gain 2.8% in six months after a loss of about 1% in the first half.
The key to the rand outlook will be the U.S. interest rate cut timing, with markets still expecting with certainty the first cut in November, Annabel Bishop, chief economist at Investec wrote in a note.
Since national elections in late May when President Cyril Ramaphosa's African National Congress party lost its majority for the first time in three decades the rand has been very volatile.
The Russian rouble RUB= is expected to lose around 7.5% to 95.00 to the dollar while the Turkish lira TRY= will weaken nearly 10% to 36.09 to the dollar in the next six months.
(For other stories from the July Reuters foreign exchange poll: nL4N3IM0R6)
Reporting by Vuyani Ndaba and Devayani Sathyan; Polling by Veronica Khongwir, Susobhan Sarkar, Arun Purujit, Rahul Trivedi and Pranoy Krishna; Editing by Jonathan Cable and Christian Schmollinger
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