Mexico has become an emerging markets weak link, with authorities facing mounting pressure to jack up interest rates to defend the peso, viewed by investors as a cheap proxy for taking short positions in other emerging currencies.
Long a favourite with bond investors, Mexico's fortunes turned this year, with the peso repeatedly under attack, forcing an extraordinary intervention in February along with a 50 basis-point rate rise.
While that move smoked out speculators, pressures are building again. Bets against the peso quadrupled in the week to May 13, according to latest available data from the Commodity Futures Trading . . .
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