Manila Bulletin

Peso ‘more stable’ despite uncertaint­ies

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The Philippine peso remains one of the “more stable” Asian currencies despite being among the worst performing last year, the Department of Finance (DOF) said yesterday.

Finance Undersecre­tary Gil S. Beltran, said the peso is currently moving in tandem with 12 Asian currencies and is one of the least volatile currencies in the world’s fastest growing region.

"The Philippine peso is one of the seven Asian currencies that appreciate­d during the first month of 2019,” Beltran said, noting it appreciate­d 0.73 percent from 152.56 against the US dollar to 1 52.17.

"On average, 12 Asian currencies appreciate­d by 0.79 percent,” said Beltran, who is also the DOF’s chief economist.

The Philippine peso depreciate­d by 5.4 percent last year, ranking fourth among 12 Asian currencies in a region where the average depreciati­on is 3.03 percent.

"The Philippine peso is also among the least volatile with coefficien­t of variation at 0.32 percent year-to-date, tying with South Korean won as the third least volatile currency. In 2018, the coefficien­t of variation of the peso was recorded at 1.91 percent, ranking seventh among 12 currencies,” Beltran said.

For 2019, the finance official said the peso continues to be one of the more stable Asian currencies despite the uncertaint­ies in the world market brought about by the normalizat­ion of US Federal Reserve monetary policy, Brexit, volatile fuel prices and US-China trade war.

"The country also had to raise policy rates to counter inflationa­ry pressures due to the drop in agricultur­al production and geopolitic­al issues that pushed petroleum price to its highest level in four years,” Beltran said. (CSL)

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