The peso slumped against the dollar on Friday, March 23, as President Donald J. Trump imposed tariffs against China.

The local currency closed at P52.39 against the greenback on Friday, 19 centavos weaker than the P52.20 finish on Thursday.

The peso traded weaker the whole day, opening the session at its best showing at P52.25. Its intraday low, meanwhile, stood at its P52.39-per-dollar finish.

Dollars traded decreased slightly to $701.2 million from the $717.4 million traded on Thursday.

“The downward pressure may have come from… the probable impact of [Mr.] Trump’s move penalize China for various alleged trade violations,” Ruben Carlo O. Asuncion, chief economist of UnionBank of the Philippines said in a text message.

On Thursday, Mr. Trump slapped new tariffs on Chinese goods worth about $50 billion following a seven-month investigation on alleged intellectual property theft.

After this, the US is also looking at imposing investment restrictions as well as retaliatory actions at the World Trade Organization.

In response, China, through the Web site of its commerce ministry, announced it might launch reciprocal imposition of tariffs on 128 American products including wine, dried fruits and nuts and steel pipes. — Karl Angelo N. Vidal

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