THE Philippine peso again fell versus the US dollar, touching P57.9 at the close of Monday’s trading, according to the website of the Bankers Association of the Philippines.
This was the peso’s weakest level since November 10, 2022, when the peso closed at P58.19 to the dollar.
Since the start of the year, the peso has lost P2.23 against the greenback, or around 4 percent.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) however has said that the peso’s depreciation was not a case of the local currency’s weakness but of the dollar’s strength.
Expectations that the US Federal Reserve will keep US interest rates high for a much longer period have propped up the dollar, analysts have said.
During the Monetary Board’s rate-setting meeting last week, BSP Deputy Governor Francisco Daila Jr. noted that the peso’s depreciation was in the middle of the pack when compared to regional peers.
Last May 16, Dakila noted that the Thai baht had weakened by around 7 percent, the Korean won by 5.3 percent, the Taiwanese dollar by 5.2 percent, the Indonesian rupiah by 4 percent, and the Singaporean dollar by 2.4 percent.
“If you compare the volatility of the peso against the other currencies, it [the peso] is not really that volatile. Other currencies in the region have weakened more than the peso,” Dakila said. (ABS-CBN News)
