The Philippine peso hit a more than three-week low on Wednesday after the country posted a record trade deficit, while most other Asian currencies lacked direction as the dollar struggled to sustain its recent recovery. Data released earlier in the session showed that Philippines trade deficit rose to a record of $3.78 billion in November, putting the nation on track for its first annual current account deficit in 15 years.
"The peso has strengthened over the last month but given that trade deficit has continued to detoriate the focus will shift back to the country's external position and that should weigh on the peso," said Khoon Goh, head of Asia research at ANZ Banking Group. Most other regional currencies lacked firm leads as the US dollar pared gains made earlier in the Asian day.
The greenback edged up earlier in the session, after benchmark US Treasury yields hit a 10-month high on Tuesday, but the US currency was 0.1 percent lower at 0513 GMT. Goh added that he expects Asian currencies to consolidate in the near-term as they had a strong run in December and early part of this year.
The Korean won, which was 2017's biggest advancer in the region, weakened 0.3 percent, in tandem with the KOSPI stock index which fell almost quarter of a percent. The won is on track to register a fourth consecutive day of losses and has been falling ever since Bank of Korea said it will respond if moves in the won get too big.
On Monday, two currency traders told Reuters the South Korean foreign exchange authorities were suspected of buying dollars in the market as the won strengthened to a more than three-year intraday high. The Taiwan dollar also softened, while the Indonesian rupiah slipped 0.1 percent. Conversely, the Thai baht firmed 0.2 percent, while the Indian rupee strenghtened 0.1 percent.
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