
TOKYO -- Emerging market currencies are collapsing in a magnitude last seen in 2015 when China's renminbi devaluation panicked global financial markets.
The current plunge reflects increased investor concerns about the outlook for emerging nations' public finances, which are deteriorating rapidly due to the spread of novel coronavirus infections and steep falls in the price of crude oil. Drops in the value of emerging economies' currencies increase the burden of their dollar-denominated debt.