EUR and JPY weakness to outpace USD debasement

I actually expect the debasement of the EUR and Japanese Yen to outpace the USD debasement, so we can expect a relatively strong USD. All these currencies will of course be weak against the commodity currencies and emerging markets. See my article about the Fed and Asian property.

The interesting aspect is the impact on the commodity producing countries like Australia, Canada, South Africa, Chile, Brazil; as well as the emerging markets like China, Korea, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines.

We can expect these countries to be strong. It is interesting of course because the Fed and EU are blaming the Chinese for the strong Yuan; but partially the reason for the strong Yuan is that the US and European Central Bank (ECB) are debasing their currencies. True, the Chinese are funding the US deficits, and that has artificially raised the USD, but that is with the support of the US government.

We might well expect emerging markets to survive this currency crisis fine this time; largely I think because they can expect a lot of property investment by Western fund managers. Expect a property boom in Asia, particularly the Philippines, China, Vietnam and Thailand. Small Western players are better off in the Philippines because of favourable language (i.e. English), familiar legal system, generous visa rules, and good yields of 8% on high-end apartments.

So what about the commodity producing countries? Australia, NZ, Canada, Brazil and Argentina rely greatly on commodity exports. The problem of course is that mineral commodities do not price at parity with agricultural commodities. This is has to result in these countries sabotaging their currencies with debasement, or more likely we can expect the stronger foodstuff prices to continue. This development makes investment in countries like the Philippines more attractive, or other countries which might have cheaper agricultural land. I know the Philippines does have marginal land as cheap as PHP10-20/m2 (USD0.20/metre2), however you could probably do better elsewhere. Certain higher value crops like coffee are better in the Philippines. Nestle certainly produces a lot. Some of the mountain provinces are also suitable to growing more temperature foodstuffs. e.g. Baguio City is a food basket for the Philippines. It is one of the few cities with malls in the cool mountains...aside from Tagaytay, south of Manila. Anyway, the Philippines is a distraction from the currency strength that is gripping these commodity and emerging markets. So expect stronger commodities as the central banks debase currencies with more 'quantitative easing'.

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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com