Asian FX is full of drama these days, but here’s something that has flown under the radar: the Hong Kong dollar has bounced up against its upper dollar limit, forcing the Hong Kong Monetary Authority to intervene aggressively to maintain its peg to the US dollar.
The Hong Kong dollar has been kept in a tight corridor of 7.75 to 7.85 per US dollar for over four decades, despite fitful attempts by hedge funds to break its grip — most forcefully in 1997-98.
Just a few years ago, famous macro tourist Bill Ackman was shorting the HKD, on the view that it was “only a matter of time before it breaks”. At the time, Hong Kong’s financial secretary said that “if you bet against the Hong Kong dollar, you are bound to lose”.