Asian currencies fell, led by Malaysia’s ringgit, as data pointed to slowing growth in the region and speculation receded that the Federal Reserve will inject more dollars into the financial system. Reports showed South Korean consumer confidence dropped to the lowest since March and Philippine imports declined 7.9 percent from a month earlier in June. Better-than expected durable-goods orders and home-price data from the U.S. curbed speculation Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke will announced a third round of bond purchases that boost the supply of dollars, known as quantitative easing, when he speaks tomorrow at a symposium at Jackson Hole, Wyoming. “Expectations for QE3 have been pared down because the recent economic data isn’t conclusive” enough to warrant urgent action, said Sim Moh Siong, a foreign-exchange strategist at Bank of Singapore Ltd. The dollar’s strength “is consistent” with those expectations, he said. The ringgit weakened 0.3 percent to 2.9855 per dollar as of 11:37 a.m. in Kuala Lumpur, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. South Korea’s won, Indonesia’s rupiah and the Singapore dollar fell 0.3 percent to 1,085.55, 8,585 and S$1.2080, respectively. The Philippine peso declined 0.2 percent 42.542. Global funds sold $3.7 billion more South Korean, Thai and Indonesian stocks than they bought in the first three days of this week, according to exchange data. U.S. house prices rose 0.9 percent in June from the month before, the biggest increase since September 2005, a report showed yesterday. Durable-goods orders jumped 4 percent in July from a year earlier, following a revised 1.3 percent contraction the previous month. Korean’s Pessimistic The won weakened for a second day after the Bank of Korea said today its sentiment index fell to 99 in August from 102 in July. A reading below 100 indicates people are more pessimistic than the average between the first quarter of 1999 and the second quarter of 2008. “There’s skepticism in the market whether there’s an effective stimulus measure that Bernanke can announce at the meeting,” said Ryoo Hyun Jung, chief currency dealer at Citibank Inc. in Seoul. “This uncertainty is preventing players from taking a strong one-sided position.” The peso dropped for a second day as the slump in imports fanned concern the nation’s economic outlook is deteriorating. Annual growth rates for imports in May and June were the lowest in a year. “Imports have been in a decelerating mode” said Radhika Rao, an economist at Forecast Pte in Singapore. “There’s not much optimism among local manufacturers to step up purchases when you don’t see sustainable end demand. Capital imports have been quite under the weather.” Elsewhere, the Taiwan dollar was little changed at NT$29.031 against its U.S. counterpart, while China’s yuan slipped 0.05 percent to 6.3919. India’s rupee declined 0.3 percent to 46.13. To contact the reporter on this story: Andrea Wong in Taipei at awong268@bloomberg.net Jiyeun Lee in Seoul at jlee1029@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Sandy Hendry at shendry@bloomberg.net

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