Philippine peso drops to 56.06 vs US dollar
Local currency closes at its lowest level since September 2005
Manila: The Philippine peso dropped further on Thursday (July 7), closing at Php56.06 against the US dollar from its previous close of Php55.67: $1 Wednesday.
It means remitters, among them millions of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), now get an extra Php665 for every $100 they send home, compared to the July 7, 2021, when the rate was $49.41 vs $1.
Lates gold and forex rates are here.
It was the lowest close since September 27, 2005, when the peso hit $56.295.
Trading opened at 55.9, from 55.42 start the previous day. Intra-day trading band was between 55.78 and 56.09, resulting in an average of 55.909.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas data showed volume reached $1.11 billion.
Analysts point to the drop of the country’s foreign exchange reserves (gross international reserves, or GIR) to $101.98 billion as of end-June 2022 and a stronger US dollar, upon the release of the minutes of meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) for June 2022.
The decline is cushioned by the softening of oil prices in the global market, alongside expectations of rate increases by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).