SAO PAULO: Most Latin American currencies weakened in early Thursday trading on weak Chinese trade data and bets on a December US interest rate increase.
China's September exports fell 10 percent from a year earlier, far worse than expected, while imports dropped unexpectedly.
Persistent concerns over economic weakness in the world's biggest commodities consumer have weighed on demand for assets in regions exporting raw materials, such as Latin America.
The Chilean peso fell 0.5 percent, tracking a decline in prices of copper, the country's main export. The Mexican peso retreated 0.6 percent.
Brazil's benchmark Bovespa stock index fell 1.0 percent after a local holiday kept it closed on Wednesday, when the minutes of the US Federal Reserve's last policy meeting were published.
According to the document, several rate-setting policymakers at the Fed judged a rate hike would be warranted "relatively soon" if the US economy continued to strengthen, though doubts about inflation remained.
Higher US interest rates could reduce the allure of high-yielding assets in emerging markets.
Losses were widespread on the Brazilian stock exchange, with shares of miners and steelmakers among the biggest decliners as prices of commodities fell.
Earlier on Thursday, the Turkish lira slid to a record low, the South African rand lost over one percent and emerging equities tumbled to three-week lows after the Chinese trade data and Fed minutes.
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