HK dollar weakens to fresh 33-year low, closer to trading band
HONG KONG, March 19 (Reuters) - The Hong Kong dollar fell to a new 33-year low on Monday, inching closer to the lower end of the monetary authority’s targeted trading band, as the interest rate gap between U.S. dollar rates and their Hong Kong counterpart widened further.
Because the former British colony pegs its currency to the greenback, its money market rates mirror that of its U.S. counterparts.
Early on Monday morning, the Hong Kong dollar fell to a new 33-year of 7.8441 per dollar.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the city’s de facto central bank, has pegged the local currency at 7.8 to the U.S. dollar since 1983, but it allows it to trade between 7.75 and 7.85. (Reporting by Donny Kwok; Editing by James Pomfret and Richard Pullin)