EXPECTED TO STRENGTHEN BY 3-5 PCT PER ANNUM

KUALA LUMPUR, July 1 (Bernama) -- Asian currencies are expected to
strengthen by between three and five per cent per annum over the next couple of
years.

Aberdeen Asset Management Asia director, Donald Amstad, said the global
economy faced significant challenges, not least the risk of growth fading in the
developed world.

He said the emerging markets, in particular Asia, would remain the bright
spots.

"The larger Asian economies, with their expanding internal markets, would
continue to decouple.

"This will support currency appreciation, in particular, over the medium to
long term," he told a media briefing on 'Mid-Year Outlook 2010' here Wednesday.

The ringgit has been traded between 3.35 and 3.70 against the dollar for the
past few weeks.

The local unit closed higher against the US dollar at 3.2380/2400 Wednesday
compared with 3.2470/2500 Tuesday.

Amstad said outlook for the US dollar remained negative notwithstanding the
weak euro and global bond investors typically remained structurally underweight
on emerging markets, Asian currencies as well as bond markets.

European sovereign risk has heightened considerably this year, with
peripheral countries, led by Greece, forced to take drastic austerity measures
in order to retain confidence of bond and equity markets, he said.

Amstad said real interest rates were expected to remain negative in numerous
countries.

Meanwhile, Stephen Docherty, Aberdeen Asset Management's head of global
equities, said in the current economic environment, equity investors could
potentially be rewarded for taking a global, unconstrained approach to
investing.

"We expect equity returns to be in the single digit this year, given the
strength of market returns last year," he said.

Docherty said the best way to achieve this would be to focus on individual
companies and their prospects and ignore benchmark indices as they were backward
looking.

-- BERNAMA