The peso on Friday weakened Friday to a 15-day low against the US dollar as the coronavirus disease or COVID-19 continues to batter financial markets.
The local currency shed P0.18 to close at 51.03 per dollar from 50.85 a day ago. It was its weakest level since the 51.035 on Feb. 26, 2020. Total volume traded stood at $1.416 billion, up from $1.375 billion earlier.
But the Department of Finance said the peso remained firm despite the volatilities in the global economy, made more uncertain by the spread of COVID-19, the collapse of global stock markets and trade restrictions imposed on each other by the world’s top trading economies.
In an economic bulletin on currency issued Friday, the DoF said the peso, as of March 10, 2020, ranked fourth among the top currencies in Southeast Asia that maintained their value against the US dollar.
“Year-to-date, the peso appreciated by 0.28 percent relative to the US dollar, ranking fourth behind the Japanese yen, Hong Kong dollar and Chinese renminbi which all appreciated against the US dollar. All the other currencies depreciated against the US dollar,” the DoF said.
“The peso-dollar exchange rate also remains stable throughout the period, its coefficient of variation at 0.27 percent, ranking second behind the Vietnamese dong among 12 regional currencies and lower than the 1.19 percent Asian average. The Vietnamese dong was the beneficiary of export producers moving out from China,” it said.
The DOF said the main reasons for the peso’s growing strength and stability were the country’s strong balance-of-payments position and rising gross international reserves.
“Strong foreign exchange inflows from exports of services, remittances, income from investments abroad, direct foreign investments and foreign borrowing all contributed to the strong BOP position. These in turn boosted the confidence in the Philippine peso,” it said.
The country had a BOP surplus of $7.844 billion in 2019, or 2.2 percent of GDP, the highest since 2012.
On the other hand, reserves rose to $87.8 billion as of end-February, 5.9 percent higher year-on-year, and equivalent to 7.7 months of imports of goods and services. The GIR level was also 5.4 times the country’s short-term external debt.
