BENGALURUJOHANNESBURG, Sept 7 Reuters Emerging market currencies will struggle to reclaim the ground lost this year, as high U.S. Treasury yields and safehaven demand amid a slowing Chinese economy keeps the dollar ascendant, a Reuters poll of FX analysts found.

A stampede into the greenback pushed the wider index of emerging market currencies to its lowest in two weeks on Monday as U.S. Treasury yields and the dollar advanced on expectations interest rates will remain high.

The dollar index has surged more than 5.0 since its 15month nadir in July. That has put pressure on risky EM currencies, echoing the dynamics observed last year when the Fed began raising rates.

In the Sept. 16 poll, almost all beatendown emerging market currencies were forecast to move little, or trade modestly higher against the dollar in a year, with some making small gains in three months.

Still, most won39;t recoup heavy losses made so far this year.

If we still have a very strong dollar, I think EM currencies for the next month or two will probably remain on the back foot, said Chris Turner, head of FX strategy at ING who added the main risk would be higher U.S. rates for longer.

The view was China was reopening, and there was going to be this big bounce in domestic demand that would drive global trade, but that just hasn39;t really happened. The underperformance of China has probably been the biggest story holding back EM currencies.

Earlier this year, many analysts expected China39;s…