Data from the United States, China, Japan and Germany have fanned worries about global growth in recent days, while there is a cloud of uncertainty over Washington and Beijing's ability to reach a deal before a 90-day deadline expires and Washington imposes more tariffs.

Markets were also on edge after British Prime Minister Theresa May reportedly withdrew a parliamentary vote on her Brexit deal.

The worries have pushed investors to refrain from investing in riskier assets, with emerging market equities falling to their lowest level in about three weeks on Monday.

"The wheels on risk assets seem to be coming off as we pull up slowly into year-end," Societe Generale analysts wrote in a note.

"If domestic political wildcards were not enough, we will also need to contend with escalating geopolitical tensions between China and the US," added the analysts.

The Brazilian real slipped for a fifth straight session while the country's benchmark stock index fell 0.6 percent, led by declines in shares of energy companies tracking lower oil prices.

State-controlled oil-firm Petroleo Brasileiro SA's was one of the biggest losers on the index. Petrobras lost at least 377 barrels of oil, which spilled into Rio de Janeiro's Guanabara Bay over the weekend after an attempted robbery on a pipeline, the company's Transpetro unit said.

State-run electricity firm Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras SA was one of the top gainers on the index after a Brazilian judge struck down a previous decision that halted the privatization of a unit of the firm.

The Mexican peso was little changed. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Sunday that Mexico would tender out the building of a refinery near the Dos Bocas oil port by March, part of his government's plan to try to reduce the country's gasoline imports.

The Chilean peso was lower by 0.3 percent tracking the price of copper, the country's main export, which slipped  as Chinese import data reinforced worries about growth in demand for industrial metals.