Hong Kong Defends FX Peg for a Fifth Time as Pressure Extends

Hong Kong authorities intervened for the fifth time in about three weeks to prevent the city’s currency from weakening beyond its official trading band.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the Chinese financial hub’s de-facto central bank, purchased HK$14.8 billion ($1.9 billion) of the local dollar, according to its Bloomberg page on Wednesday, a small increase on its effort late last week. Its four previous rounds of purchases cost it about HK$72 billion, according to Bloomberg’s calculations of official data.