JAKARTA -- Asian central banks that have been forced into aggressive rate hikes this year have been given some breathing room in 2019, after the U.S. Federal Reserve struck a more dovish tone in its monetary policy for the year ahead.
The Fed's monetary policy has been the key cause of the plunge in emerging market currencies. Its new projection of two rate hikes next year, one less than it previously indicated, will come as a relief for Asian monetary authorities who spent the best part of 2018 trying to prop up their currencies.
