Asia News Wrap: Japanese yen hits 34-year low, and more

Here are a few stories from around Asia you may have missed this week.

The Japanese yen hit a 34-year low of 155.74 yen to the dollar on Thursday. The yen's latest devaluation began in early 2022, in sync with the aggressive rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed). The Fed's abrupt shift to sharp rate hikes in 2022 to combat soaring inflation produced severe negative spillover effects on the global economy. 

The Bank of Japan, faced with domestic deflationary pressures, maintained its negative interest rate policy till last month. The yen's weakness against the dollar has ignited the market's anxiety surrounding currency intervention. Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki and other policymakers have said they are watching currency moves closely and will respond as needed.

Authorities in Thailand on Wednesday issued an extreme heat warning for Bangkok, urging people to stay indoors for their safety as temperatures soared. The mercury hit 39 degrees Celsius in Thailand, while the heat index rose above 52 degrees Celsius, classified as "extremely dangerous" by the municipal authorities. 

The heat index is what the temperature feels like to the human body when relative humidity is combined with the air temperature. The Thai government said at least 30 people have already died of heatstroke this year. April is typically the hottest and most humid time of the year in Thailand, but conditions this year have been exacerbated by the El Nino weather pattern.

China launched the Shenzhou-18 manned spaceship on Thursday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) announced. A Long March-2F carrier rocket carrying the Shenzhou-18 spacecraft with three taikonauts aboard blasted off at 8:59 p.m. Beijing Time.

About 10 minutes later, the spacecraft separated from the rocket and entered the planned orbit. The spacecraft later docked with China's space station and the crew entered the country's space station, starting a new in-orbit crew handover. CMSA said the six astronauts will work together for about five days to complete the handover. 

Indonesia's popular tourist destination of Bali has called on foreign visitors to get dengue shots as the number of dengue fever cases is rising in the country. Bali Health Agency's head of Disease Prevention and Control, Gusti Ayu Raka Susanti, said on Saturday that dengue vaccines were not mandatory, but tourists are advised to get the jabs to ensure they would remain healthy during travel. 

"The dengue fever vaccinations are highly suggested, not only for tourists, but also all Balinese people, so that they can protect themselves from dengue infections," she told local media. Concerns over dengue fever in Bali followed an increasing number of cases elsewhere in Indonesia. The overall rate in the province has been quite high, with a total of 4,177 cases and five deaths this year.

The South Korean economy grew at the fastest pace in more than two years in the first quarter of this year, beating all estimates with a pick-up in domestic consumption and robust exports. Gross domestic product (GDP) for the January-March quarter was 1.3-percent higher than the preceding three months, the sharpest expansion since the fourth quarter of 2021, data from the Bank of Korea (BOK), showed. 

The BOK said at its last rate meeting that there was a possibility the economy would grow at a faster pace in 2024 than its earlier projection of 2.1 percent. In 2023, the economy grew by a three-year low of 1.4 percent. The Korean Herald newspaper wrote "Calling the Q1 GDP data 'a clear green light' that the economy is 'returning to the growth path,' the Ministry of Economy and Finance said further economic expansion is expected as 'exports continue to improve and domestic demand recovery gradually grows.'”

(Cover: A man looks at an electronic board displaying the exchange rate of the Japanese yen against the U.S. dollar along a street in Tokyo on April 24, 2024. /CFP)