By Aaron Michael C. Sy, Reporter

THE PHILIPPINE peso appreciated against the dollar on Monday amid cautious signals from US Federal Reserve officials on their next policy meeting.

It closed at P58.68 a dollar, strengthening by 5.2 centavos from its P58.732 finish on Friday, according to Bankers Association of the Philippines data posted on its website.

The peso opened at P58.67 against the dollar. Its intraday best was at P58.65, while its worst showing was at P58.777 against the greenback.

Dollars exchanged fell to $1.05 billion from $1.36 billion on Friday.

The peso moved sideways against the dollar amid some cautious trading as the market assessed the Fed’s next policy move, a trader said by phone.

Fed Chairman Jerome H. Powell last week said the US central bank did not need to rush to lower interest rates as inflation was on the path to reaching their 2% target.

The peso was also supported by comments from other Fed officials on the US central bank’s next move, Michael L. Ricafort, chief economist at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., said in a Viber message.

Boston Fed President Susan Collins said she did not see a big urgency to lower rates, but did not rule out another rate cut at the Fed’s next meeting on Dec. 17-18, Reuters reported.

Speaking to CNBC, Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee acknowledged that one important indicator of inflation, the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, which is stripped of food and energy costs, remains “too high” at an estimated 2.8% for October.

And if officials disagree on where they see the “neutral” stopping point, “it does make sense to start slowing at some point how rapidly you are getting there just to figure out… are we at neutral, are we getting close?”

But he also reiterated his broad expectation that inflation would continue to fall toward the Fed’s 2% target. In an interview with Bloomberg TV later on Friday, he signaled that the Fed would end up cutting rates by a quarter of a percentage point next month and by another full percentage point over the course of next year, as Fed policy makers projected in September.

The trader expects the peso to move between P58.60 and P58.90 a dollar on Tuesday, while Mr. Ricafort sees it ranging from P58.60 to P58.80.

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