Peso closes at 57 vs US dollar
THE Philippine peso closed at a record low of P57 against the United States dollar at the Philippine Dealing System on Tuesday, the Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP) said.
According to BAP, the local currency opened slightly weaker at P56.888.
The Philippine peso hit an intraday high of P56.86 before losing steam to touch an intraday low of P57 to a dollar.
Tuesday’s weighted average exchange rate was P56.95, slightly weaker than Monday’s P56.941.
Volume reached $812.19 million on Tuesday, lower than the $976.45 million in the previous session.
The dollar’s value continued to appreciate against most regional counterparts after US Federal Reserve officials maintained their hawkish stance.
In a press conference on Tuesday, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) explained how a weaker peso against its US counterpart influences inflation and the purchasing power of Filipinos.
Although the purchasing power of the peso is not calculated using the value of the US dollar, National Statistician and PSA chief Claire Dennis Mapa said the inflationary influence could harm the local currency’s purchasing value.
“Strong dollar versus the peso has an impact on the items in the consumer price index,” explained Mapa.
He pointed out that imported goods like petroleum, which are purchased with dollars, may impact local pump costs and, consequently, inflation.
Mapa said a stronger US dollar would affect the purchasing power of the peso “only if the strong dollar will have an impact on our headline inflation.”
Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. chief economist Michael Ricafort said the peso depreciated against the US dollar by a total of P6.001, or 11.8 percent, compared to the P50.999 rate in end-2021.
Even if the PSA said that the inflation rate in the country eased to 6.3 percent from 6.4 percent in July, Ricafort said the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ decision to “slightly” cut oil production by 100,000 barrels per day in October 2022 affected the trade rate.