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By Bloomberg

Asian currencies fell for a fifth week, the longest losing streak in 18 months, as the prospect of higher U.S. interest rates sapped demand for emerging-market assets at a time when China's economy is sputtering.

The Bloomberg-JPMorgan Asia Dollar Index declined 0.3 percent this week and on Oct. 1 sank to its lowest level since March. South Korea's won led losses in the region with a 1.6 percent slide versus the greenback, while India's rupee and Indonesia's rupiah dropped more than 0.7 percent. The offshore yuan decreased the most in more than three months in Hong Kong amid pro-democracy protests in the city. Financial markets in China, India and South Korea are shut for holidays today.

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was headed for a seventh weekly advance before data today that's forecast to show U.S. employers stepped up hiring in September. The Federal Reserve is on track to announce the end of its bond-buying program this month and is assessing whether the world's largest economy can withstand higher interest rates. China's services output expanded in September at the slowest pace in eight months, an official Purchasing Managers' Index showed today.

"As we get closer towards eventual rate increases in the U.S., this is causing Asian currencies to depreciate against the dollar," said Khoon Goh, a strategist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. in Singapore. "Ongoing concern over Chinese growth is also a factor. The divergence in growth momentum between the U.S. and Asia suggests we could see further Asian currency depreciation to come."

Stock Outflows

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, which tracks the greenback against 10 major peers, has risen 1.5 percent since the Federal Open Market Committee boosted its end-2015 median estimate for the federal funds rate at its Sept. 16-17 meeting. Global funds pulled about $1.5 billion from stock markets in Taiwan, South Korea and Indonesia this week, exchange data show.

The won fell to a six-month low of 1,064.51 per dollar on Oct. 1 after minutes of the Bank of Korea's September monetary- policy meeting indicated that two of the seven committee members favored a cut in interest rates. The benchmark rate was lowered in August to 2.25 percent from 2.50 percent and reports this week showed an unexpected drop in factory output and the slowest inflation in seven months.

The yuan fell 0.2 percent this week in Shanghai to close at 6.1395 per dollar on Sept. 30, before a weeklong holiday in China. The offshore yuan dropped 0.26 percent and Hong Kong's dollar was little changed at 7.7587. Hong Kong's government said today its main office complex is closed after students strengthened barricades around the building that's been the focus of protests for at least a week.

Malaysia's ringgit advanced 0.1 percent from Sept. 26, snapping a run of four weekly declines, as the government increased fuel prices for the first time in more than a year to narrow the budget deficit. It fell 0.3 percent today.

Elsewhere in the region, Taiwan's dollar depreciated 0.4 percent this week versus the greenback, the Philippine peso lost 0.1 percent and Thailand's baht dropped 0.6 percent. The Vietnamese dong declined 0.4 percent, its biggest decrease since June.