Seoul: Asian currencies had their biggest weekly loss in more than a month last week, led by the Indian rupee and the Thai baht, as further signs that the US economic recovery is on track bolstered demand for the greenback.

China's yuan had its steepest five-day decline since December 2008 as data on US service industries and jobs beat economist's forecasts in Bloomberg surveys.

South Korea's won and Malaysia's ringgit weakened on speculation that regional policymakers will take measures to curb gains in their currencies to protect exporters.

Lingering concern over Europe's debt crisis also pushed Asian currencies lower, according to Credit Agricole CIB.

The Bloomberg-JPMorgan Asia-Dollar Index, which follows the region's 10 most-traded currencies, dropped 0.7 per cent to 115.66 in Hong Kong on Friday.

Yuan retreates

The Indian rupee slumped 1.6 per cent from a week ago to 45.41 last week and the baht fell 1.2 per cent to 30.33 last week, its biggest five-day decline since February 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The yuan retreated 0.59 per cent to 6.6291.

"In times of US dollar strength, Asian currencies suffer," said Dariusz Kowalczyk, an economist at Credit Agricole in Hong Kong.

The Institute for Supply Management reported last week that US service industries expanded in December at the fastest pace since May 2006.

Its non-factory index, which covers about 90 per cent of the economy, climbed to 57.1 from 55 in November.

Intervention risk

The won fell by as much as 0.5 per cent on Friday after Samsung Electronics said fourth-quarter profit slipped 13 per cent, more than analysts had predicted.

The currency dropped 0.2 per cent from Thursday to 1,122.30 last week, according to Bloomberg data.

"When a company like Samsung misses their numbers they can always point to the strength of the won and say that it is hurting them," said Douglas Borthwick, managing director and head of foreign-exchange trading at Stamford, Connecticut-based Faros Trading.

"That places further pressure on the Bank of Korea to smooth any won strength."