Asian currencies fall on slowdown fears

India's rupee and Thailand's baht led declines among Asian currencies this week on signs economic growth is slowing in the region and speculation cooled that the Federal Reserve will unveil further stimulus measures.

Taiwan's industrial output rose less than estimated last month and consumer confidence in South Korea fell to the least since March this month, reports showed this week. The US economy grew at a 1 per cent annual rate in the second quarter, compared with a previous estimate of 1.3 per cent, according to the median forecast of economists in a Bloomberg survey. The Dollar Index traded on ICE Futures in New York fell this week before a speech yesterday by Fed Chairman Ben S Bernanke.

Bernanke said yesterday the US central bank still has tools to stimulate an economic recovery, without giving details. The recovery is likely to improve in the second half of this year, he told an annual forum in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Bernanke said yesterday the US central bank still has tools to stimulate an economic recovery, without giving details. The recovery is likely to improve in the second half of this year, he told an annual forum in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The baht slid 0.5 per cent this week to 29.98 per dollar in Bangkok. The rupee fell 0.9 per cent to 46.1575.

GROWTH OUTLOOK
Singapore reported yesterday that annual growth in industrial production slowed to 7.4 per cent in July following a revised 10.7 per cent increase a month earlier.

Thomas Hoenig, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City which hosted the meeting in Jackson Hole yesterday, told Bloomberg TV on August 25 there's a limit to how much more the central bank can do to help the US economy. The global economy has a 50 per cent chance of slipping into recession as Europe and the US struggle to grow, Nobel laureate Michael Spence said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Hong Kong on August 25.

The rupee completed a fourth weekly decline, taking its drop for the month to 4.2 per cent. Global investors have reduced holdings of the nation's shares by $2 billion this month on concern Asia's third-biggest economy is slowing. Gross domestic product rose 7.6 per cent in the three months ended June, the least in six quarters, according to the median forecast of economists in a Bloomberg survey before official data due on August 30.