"The recent dollar rebound is expected to be short-lived. This provides investors with an opportunity to establish investment positions that will take advantage of further dollar weakness that we expect to come in the first half of 2004." - Claudio Piron, Head of Standard Chartered FX Strategy team*

While European currencies are expected to lose ground in the second half of the year, Asian currencies are expected to continue their ascent through to the end of the year and possibly beyond.

Key predictions:

• Euro to touch 1.40 against the Dollar.
• Sterling to hit 2.00 in the first half of the year.
• Japanese Yen to reach 90 against the Dollar by the close of 2004.
• Singapore Dollar hits 1.62 over the same time frame.

" Standard Chartered FX Strategy team has repeatedly outperformed the vast majority of its rivals in its FX forecasting performance the past two years (Source: Bloomberg Surveys).