10 Currencies That May Follow Tenge in Tumble Triggered by China

  • Saudi Arabia's riyal and the Egyptian pound under pressure
  • Countries with economic ties to China and Russia are exposed

Currency Wars: Who Will Devalue Next?

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On most days, Kazakhstan finds itself in the backwaters of financial markets. Yet, it’s this central Asian nation that has delivered the latest shockBloomberg Terminal to global currency trading.

Thursday’s 22 percent plunge in the tenge after Kazakhstan abandoned control of its exchange rate revealed a sense of urgency among policy makers: they had tried a managed depreciation just a day earlier. The escalation signaled to investors that it has become too costly for developing nations to defend their currencies. Vietnam also devalued the dong, while freely traded currencies such the South African rand and Turkey’s lira extended losses.