The Philippine peso continued to prove its strength against the US dollar as it remains among the least volatile in the region, a government press release said.

Its year-to-date volatility against the US currency stood at 1.29 percent, the second most stable after the Chinese yuan at 0.08 percent.

Third from the top is the Taiwan dollar at 2.11 percent followed by the Malaysian ringgit, 2.12 percent; Thailand baht, 2.19 percent; Singapore dollar, 2.74 percent; Japanese yen, 3.46 percent; Korean won, 7.21 percent, and Indonesian Rupiah, 7.51 percent, the press release said.

The peso on Wednesday further traded stronger against the dollar after it reached the 47 level by mid-trade.

At the Philippine Dealing Exchange (PDEx), the local unit opened at 46.90 and hit a high of 46.86 and low of 47.08.

It closed at 46.91 for the day, better than the previous day's 46.76, the press release added.

Volume of trade surged to US$ 1.023 billion from day-ago's 920.075 million.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. told reporters Wednesday that the local unit is moving in tandem with the other currencies in the region.

“If you look at the rest of volatilities, we are not the most volatile. We are not the least volatile so we are in the middle of the range of volatility but closer to the least volatile end of the range,” he said.

Market players are saying that the central bank is joining the market just to smoothen sharp fluctuations not to power the local unit, the press release said.

Earlier, some officials from other central banks have suggested the diversification of reserve currencies to address, citing the weakening of the US dollar.

Tetangco said the US currency “remains to be the central reserve currency” amid this call as “it (US dollar) still occupies the most prominent core among the reserve currencies that are being held by various governments.”

“What is likely going to happen because of this increased diversification (is) there will probably be other currencies that will gain in prominence but the dollar will continue to be the major reserve currency,” he added, the press release further said.*

back to top