December is a busy season due to students shopping for items before traveling abroad to study, prompting a jump in online sales of electronic products.

Taiwan's currency has strengthened against the South Korean won, the island's central bank said, adding that the two economies compete with one another for exports.

Taiwan's dollar dropped for a third day, its longest losing streak of the month, after the central bank said it will intervene if irregular factors cause excessive currency volatility. Bonds were little changed.

Taiwan's current-account surplus widened in the third quarter as imports declined. The surplus expanded to US$8.24 billion in the three months to Sept. 30 from a revised US$2.06 billion a year earlier, the central bank said in a statement in Taipei.

The Merrill Lynch Group yesterday raised its forecast for Taiwan's gross domestic product for this year to a minus 3.4 growth rate from an earlier forecast of a negative 5 percent.

China's yuan is undervalued by 20 percent, a Reuters poll shows on Friday, highlighting the case of President Barack Obama who this week pressed Beijing to allow the currency to rise.

Pacific Investment Management Co., manager of the world's biggest bond fund, said China's yuan, South Korea's won and the Singapore dollar offer “attractive value” because central banks need to counter inflation.

China is passive on the value of the U.S. dollar as the level doesn't affect the nation's economy, central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said, rebuffing criticism that the government is devaluing the yuan.

Asian policy makers are studying capital controls to limit “hot money” inflows that may stoke asset bubbles and force their currencies to appreciate.

From Angola to Belarus, emerging-market governments are planning first-time debt offerings to take advantage of the biggest bond rally in at least 11 years.