After the sell-off on Black Monday, the world's major central banks came out to stabilise sentiment, as the chart from DBS Bank shows. On Tuesday, China lowered its lending and deposit rates and banks' reserve requirement ratio. A day later, the US Federal Reserve signalled that the odds for a rate lift-off next month had diminished while the European Central Bank opened the door for more quantitative easing. Then on Thursday, global economic worries receded after US gross domestic product growth for the second quarter was revised up to a quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.7 per cent from 2.3 per cent. In the currency markets, the past few days were viewed more as a reduction in risk aversion. Safe haven currencies such as the Swiss franc gave back their gains. The Canadian dollar, the Australian dollar and the New Zealand dollar regained their composure with commodities. In Asia ex-Japan, the Taiwan dollar, the Korean won and the Singaporean dollar recovered most from their worst levels this week although the yuan resumed its depreciation again.
