The Philippine peso fell on Thursday after the economy weakened to its slowest pace in more than five years in the third quarter, while most emerging Asian currencies rose after soft US data pushed down Treasury yields and hurt the dollar. The peso eased 0.1 percent to 44.96 per dollar, turning weaker after data showed the Philippine economy expanded a seasonally adjusted 0.4 percent in the July-September period from the previous quarter. Manila shares lost 0.8 percent, underperforming regional equity markets.
Third-quarter growth was the weakest since the first quarter of 2009 and came in well below expectations of 1.4 percent growth in a Reuters poll. Economic planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said in a media briefing it would be a "big challenge" to hit the low end of the 2014 growth target of 6.5 to 7.5 percent. The dismal data boosted expectations that the central bank will hold rates for an extended period before resuming its tightening cycle.
"It's a case for them not to do anything at this point," said Patrick Ella, economist at Security Bank Corp in Manila, referring to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. "This figure gives them a case to pause... a longer pause past Q1." South Korea's won rose as much as 0.6 percent to 1,100.3 per dollar, its strongest since November 19, on increasing demand from exporters for month-end settlements.
Data showed the nation's current account surplus in October rose to a seasonally adjusted $7.32 billion from a revised $4.99 billion surplus in September as imports fell. The dollar eased against the yen and euro as US data on consumers, housing and manufacturing pushed the benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield to a one-month low on Wednesday. The won, however, pared some of its earlier gains with South Korea's foreign exchange authorities suspected of intervening to check its strength against the yen.
Earlier, the won advanced to 9.3552 against the Japanese unit, its strongest since August 2008. The Taiwan dollar rose from Wednesday's close, after the central bank intervened to check gains in the previous session, according to traders. The island's currency tracked gains in the won and yen, though oil importers bought US dollars for payments and limited the Taiwan dollar's upside, traders said.