South-East Asia central banks digging into toolkit to fight risks countries are now facing this year

BANGKOK, Oct 16 (Bloomberg): Policymakers across South-East Asia are reaching for both conventional and unconventional instruments available in their toolbox to stem plunging currencies and cool price gains.

While the region’s problems are middling compared to some neighbors in the south, countries face their biggest challenges in decades. The Philippine peso retraced an all-time low this week while the Malaysian ringgit drifted to the weakest in almost 25 years as a stronger dollar ups the risk of imported inflation.