Rupiah hurt by rate cut, bond outflows on dour economic outlook

The Indonesian rupiah led losses among Asian currencies on Friday, a day after the country's central bank cut interest rates and trimmed the 2021 growth forecast, with rising US yields sparking bond outflows to weigh on the currency.

Benchmark US Treasury yields returned to a near one-year high level hit earlier this week, which has pressured riskier Asian stocks and currencies across the board.

Despite a weaker greenback, the Singapore dollar , South Korean won and the Philippine peso all declined between 0.1% to 0.2%.

The rupiah fell 0.4% to a three-week low, while local stocks slid, both on track for weekly losses as a debilitating wave of COVID-19 infections caused Bank Indonesia to trim rates by 25 basis points (bps) and downgrade the economic outlook on Thursday.

"The 2021 growth outlook was lowered...which is quite disappointing, but rupiah may continue to focus on external factors," said Daniel Dubrovsky, a strategist at trading platform IG.

"Rising longer-term rates in the world's largest economy may gradually slow the path for appreciation in the rupiah."

Indonesia's bonds, a foreign investor favourite, lost some sheen with 10-year benchmark yields rising 5.1 bps to 6.583%, their highest since November 5.

The bonds yields have jumped almost 34 bps so far this week.

Meanwhile, Philippine and Malaysia shares edged up after two sessions of heavy losses, while Singapore's index slumped 1.3%.

South Korea equities continued their descent for third day on recent jump in coronavirus cases, giving up most of their vaccine-fuelled rally gains earlier this week.

Indian currency markets were closed for a holiday, while shares fell 0.5% on profit-taking.