Chilean peso slumps ahead of weekend election Turkey"s rates slashed despite soaring inflation Mexican peso down on c.bank deputy"s inflation warning South Africa lifts rate by 25 bps Nov 18 (Reuters) - The Brazilian real led declines among Latin American currencies on Thursday as a broad-based sell-off took hold across emerging market assets, while Chile"s peso extended losses to a third day in a week leading up to presidential elections. The real , also fell for the third straight session, last down 0.8%, while MSCI"s index for Latin American (.MILA00000CUS) currencies slipped 0.9%. Chile"s peso slumped 0.3% to 18-month lows, weighed by sliding copper prices. Far-right lawyer Jose Antonio Kast and leftist lawmaker and former protest leader Gabriel Boric are the front-runners in the election campaign. Pollsters are split over which of the two would win in a potential run-off on Dec. 19. read more Nikhil Sanghani, an emerging markets economist at Capital Economics, says both candidates advocate relatively loose fiscal policy. "This would help to support economic growth in the near term but could raise concerns about inflation and public debt in the medium term. Alongside lingering uncertainty over the new constitution, these factors are likely to keep Chilean financial markets on the back foot in the coming quarters." Mexico"s peso dropped 0.6% after the Mexican Central Bank deputy governor estimated that November"s annual inflation rate could top 7%, the highest in 20 years and more than double the bank"s inflation target of 3% plus or minus one percentage point. The Turkish lira , slid as much as 6.4% to 11.3 as most other emerging market currencies deepened losses. Russia"s rouble , which was flat on the day, slipped 0.5% to beyond 73 per dollar, while Mexico"s peso slid 1%. South Africa"s rand weakened as much as 1.6%. Citing increased inflation risks, the South African Reserve Bank hiked its key rate by 25 basis points to 3.75% in a split vote. While markets had deemed it too close to call, expectations were for the rate to be kept unchanged. MSCI"s index of EM currencies (.MIEM00000CUS) dropped 0.2%. Worries of a contagion stemming from the lira"s slide to broader emerging markets are limited, said Cristian Maggio, head of portfolio strategy at TD Securities. "Maybe the likes of South Africa and Russia may see flows diverted away from Turkey, but won"t likely cause more than a slight increase in volatility. I think Turkey"s crisis is quite self-contained." EM stocks (.MSCIEF) intensified losses to drop 1.1%, on track for their worst session in three weeks. Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 2023 GMT: Stock indexes Latest Daily % change MSCI Emerging Markets (.MSCIEF) 1273.07 -1.07 MSCI LatAm (.MILA00000PUS) 2079.84 -1.6 Brazil Bovespa (.BVSP) 102521.36 -0.41 Mexico IPC (.MXX) 50575.10 -0.92 Chile IPSA (.SPIPSA) 4281.66 -0.27 Argentina MerVal (.MERV) 89512.44 2.251 Colombia COLCAP (.COLCAP) 1328.81 -0.13 Currencies Latest Daily % change Brazil real 5.5654 -0.75 Mexico peso 20.7820 -0.68 Chile peso 832.6 -0.85 Colombia peso 3922.64 -0.16 Peru sol 4.0163 -0.30 Argentina peso (interbank) 100.4000 -0.05 Argentina peso (parallel) 198 1.77