Very much driving the broad dollar sell-off in August was the recovery in Asian currencies, ING’s FX strategist Chris Turner notes.

Hard to be very positive on the renminbi at this point

“This was led by the resurgent renminbi. Those gains may have been largely driven by short-covering in both the currency and local Chinese equity markets. At the same time, we and others were discussing whether Chinese exporters were being dragged into hedging export proceeds, previously having taken the view that the renminbi was on a one-way path lower.”

“Yet the path to a stronger renminbi is far from clear. Chinese August CPI and PPI data came in very soft again and the local equity market, the CSI 300, is again under pressure and back to the February lows. Unless Chinese policymakers can find some stimulus from somewhere, it is hard to be very positive on the renminbi at this point.”