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Peso ends 2020 at strongest in over 4 years

The Philippine peso closed the last trading day of the year at P48.02 against the United States dollar, its best finish in more than four years.

The local currency, which opened at P48.04, gained 3 centavos to end at P48.02, its strongest since its P47.99:$1 close on Sept. 23, 2016.

Tuesday’s close also marked a 5.15-percent appreciation from P50.63 versus the greenback on Dec. 27, 2019, and settled within the government’s P48-to-50:$1 exchange rate assumption for the year.

In a comment, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. chief economist Michael Ricafort attributed the peso’s performance to “expectations of some accumulated OFW (overseas Filipino worker) remittances and conversion to pesos ahead of the upcoming long New Year holiday weekend.”

“The timely approval of the P4.5-trillion 2021 national budget by President [Rodrigo] Duterte on Dec. 28, 2020 that supports increased government spending, especially on infrastructure that support economic recovery prospects, also supported the latest strength of the peso,” he explained.

The latest data on foreign portfolio investments and balance of payments (BoP) also contributed to the appreciation, according to the economist.

Foreign portfolio investments, or “hot money,” remained positive in November after recording net inflows of $226.75 million. The country’s BoP registered a surplus of $1.47 billion last month.

“Global market sentiment that partly led to the stronger peso continued to be supported by the approval of [the latest] US [economic] stimulus measure and the [recent] agreement on post-Brexit trade deal,” which resulted in the greenback falling against major global currencies to its lowest in more than two-and-a-half years, Ricafort said.


Source: ManilaTimes
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