December 6, 2024 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — The peso rebounded to the 57 to $1 level yesterday, buoyed by stronger remittance inflows ahead of the holiday season.
The local currency gained 35 centavos to close at 57.88 from Thursday’s 58.23 to $1 finish, data from the Bankers Association of the Philippines showed.
This was the peso’s strongest close in nearly three months or since the 57.59 to $1 close on Oct. 21.
The peso opened at 58.18 yesterday. Its intraday best was at 57.855 while its weakest point stood at 58.21.
Trading volume went down by 6.4 percent to $1.61 billion from $1.72 billion on Wednesday.
Michael Ricafort, chief economist at RCBC, attributed the peso’s rally to the seasonal uptick in remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
He said that the continued seasonal increase in OFW remittances and their conversion to pesos to finance Christmas holiday-related spending has supported the peso.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Deputy Governor Francisco Dakila Jr. earlier said that the peso could strengthen in the fourth quarter especially because of seasonal factors during the Christmas holidays.
“We are also expecting that there will be support for the peso, in line with the fundamentals, including a sustained growth of remittances.
Over the medium term, we project remittances to grow by three percent annually,” Dakila had said.
There would also be some buffers from the country’s high gross international reserves, he added.
The Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) earlier revised its projections for the peso.
It now sees the peso averag ing P57-P57.50 against the dollar this year, “given sustained
remittance growth, recovery in travel services and grow ing outsourcing rev- enues.”
The peso is ex- pected to “broadly stabilize” at P56- P58 per dollar in 2025, and P55-P58 per dollar for 2026 to 2028.
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