YANGON: A rapid depreciation of Myanmar's currency is pushing up the prices of essentials, including food and medicine, crippling ordinary households in the South-East Asian country wrecked by civil war and a crumbling economy.
The Myanmar kyat has been extremely volatile in recent days, plunging to a low of 7,500 to the dollar in the black market last week from 5,000 earlier in the month, according to four foreign exchange traders. The plunge followed reports that the Myanmar junta was printing more kyat to prop up the currency, two traders said.
