Goh says 'you can't fight market'

Goh says 'you can't fight market'

TOKYO (Reuter): Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said
yesterday that despite recent turmoil, economic fundamentals in
Asia, including Thailand, were sound.

Goh did not point a finger at currency speculators for the
turmoil and warned the region's central bankers they would be
fighting a losing battle if they tried to counter market attacks
on overvalued currencies.

"I take a view that you can't fight the market," Goh said when
asked whether he believed Asia was gripped by a currency crisis
due to overvaluation of Asia as a world financial center.

"If the market believes that currencies are overvalued and the
sentiment is that they therefore should sell the currency, it is
difficult for any central bank to fight that sentiment." he told
a news conference in Tokyo.

The Thai baht, Malaysian ringgit, Philippine peso and
Indonesian rupiah have dropped sharply against the dollar in
recent months due to attacks by currency speculators.

Last week Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad rapped the
United States for refusing to regard the currency moves of
financier George Soros as a crime.

Mahathir accused Soros of attacking the currencies of the
members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to
punish the group for accepting military-ruled Myanmar into the
organization.

Soros has said that he was not involved in the currency sell-
offs.

Goh, who is on the last day of a four-day visit to Tokyo, said
that the economic fundamentals of Asian countries were sound.

"I hold the view that the economic fundamentals are sound
despite the current turmoil," he said.

The currency crisis in Thailand derived mainly from the
country's sluggish exports and excessive property investments, he
said.

Goh said it would take a little time for Thailand to overcome
its foreign exchange problems but that the country's economic
fundamentals were "pretty sound".

He said Singapore had been little affected by the Asian
foreign exchange turmoil.

The Singapore dollar has lost 5 percent of its value against
the U.S. currency but only 1 percent against the basket of
currencies of its major trading partners, Goh said.