Vicious currency cycle ensnares central banks hooked on easing

NEW YORK: The world’s central banks are infecting each other.

As many rush to ease monetary policy even more to revive their lackluster economies, those that don’t – such as the US Federal Reserve and Bank of England – have found their growth penalised by rising currencies. That may contribute to a more accommodative policy path than they envisaged, reversing foreign-exchange rate gains and putting pressure on their counterparts to take further action.