The peso surged to its nearly three-month high against the dollar on Monday, April 30, following the upgraded economic outlook for the Philippines given last week.
The local currency ended Monday’s session at P51.74 against the greenback, a 22.5-centavo jump from the P51.965-per-dollar finish on Friday.
This was the peso’s best showing since closing at P51.48 exchange rate on Feb. 9.
The peso traded stronger the whole day, opening the session at P51.68. It peaked to as high as P51.67, while its intraday low stood at P51.795.
Dollars traded slipped to $556.2 million from the $806.05 million logged Friday last week.
A trader said that the peso improved even though the dollar was stronger across the board.
“The peso is trading stronger against the dollar. Maybe one of the reasons why we continue to see this [uptrend in peso] is because of the positive outlook given by the S&P,” the trader said in a phone interview.
Debt watcher S&P Global Ratings upgraded its credit outlook for the Philippine economy to “positive” from “stable,” hinting on better chances of a rating upgrade.
“The positive outlook reflects our view that improvements to the [Philippine] policy-making settings could support a track record of more sustainable public finances and balanced growth over the next 24 months,” S&P said in a statement sent late Thursday.
The Philippines currently holds a “BBB” rating from S&P, a notch above minimum investment grade. The rating has been on a “stable” outlook since April 2015 prior to this revision. — Karl Angelo N. Vidal

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