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Why emerging market currencies are collapsing

The latest is the Kazakhstan tenge, which tumbled more than 20 percent Thursday against the dollar after the Central Asian country said it would adopt a free-floating currency policy. On Wednesday, Vietnam devalued its currency for the third time this year.

August 22, 2015 / 13:24 IST
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Emerging market currencies are falling like dominoes.

The latest is the Kazakhstan tenge, which tumbled more than 20 percent Thursday against the dollar after the Central Asian country said it would adopt a free-floating currency policy. On Wednesday, Vietnam devalued its currency for the third time this year.

"Over the last several years, we've had a bit of a love affair with emerging markets," said Marc Chandler, global head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman, which was spurred by global growth, commodity prices, low interest rates and a weak US dollar.

But with commodities prices dropping, an economic slowdown in China and the prospect of a rate hike in the next year, emerging markets have fallen out of favor, Chandler said.

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Earlier this month, China allowed its currency to devalue, sending the yuan down about 2 percent against the dollar. Currencies in other emerging market countries such as Turkey, Russia, Malaysia and Brazil have also plunged this year.

Read More: Why another China devaluation could be comingChandler said the selloff in currencies comes from foreign investors and emerging market companies that borrowed US dollars while interest rates were low, and are now facing a "currency mismatch" paying the money back as the greenback rises.