Emerging market currencies are on track for their worst first half of the year since 2020, pushed lower by an unexpectedly strong dollar and an unwind in a popular trading strategy across Latin American markets. JPMorgan’s emerging markets foreign exchange index has fallen 4.4 per cent so far this year, a drop more than twice as large as the same period in the three previous years.
The Mexican peso has fallen by almost ten per cent since the country’s ruling Morena party won a landslide victory that stoked concerns about fiscal policy in Mexico and increased interference in the economy. Investors say the effects rippled across other Latin American currencies such as the Colombian peso and Brazilian real.