Singapore remains on US currency manipulation watchlist despite Vietnamese and Swiss reprieve

There was perhaps a sigh of relief in Hanoi and Berne as the US Treasury reversed the Trump administration’s decision to label both Vietnam and Switzerland as currency manipulators. But while the Biden administration chose not to label any country as a currency manipulator this time, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore remain on its watchlist. 

Under US Treasury definitions, a currency manipulator is defined as a state with persistent, one-sided FX market interventions with net purchases of foreign currency conducted in 6 out of a 12-month review period and totalling 2% of GDP. Such economies should also have a current account surplus exceeding 2% of GDP and a bilateral trade surplus with the US exceeding US$20 billion ($26.6 billion) over the review period.