Peso barely moves as inflation picks up

The peso slightly strengthened against the dollar on Thursday, April 5, following the faster inflation print in March.
The local currency ended Thursday’s session at P52.115 versus the dollar, almost flat from the P52.12-per-greenback finish on Wednesday.
The peso moved sideways throughout the trading session, opening slightly weaker at P52.125. Its worst showing stood at P52.16, while its intraday high was at P52.09.
Dollars traded slid to $483 million from the $504.4 million booked the previous session.
“The peso slightly gained strength today following the release of stronger Philippine inflation data released earlier this morning,” a trader said in an e-mail.
The overall inflation accelerated to 4.3% year-on-year in March under the 2012 base year, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) announced on Thursday. This was faster than the previous month’s 3.8% and the 3.1% increase in the same month in 2017.
The preliminary data exceeded the 2-4% target range set by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas for this year, as well as the 4.2% median estimate in BusinessWorld poll of nine economists conducted last week.
The PSA attributed the acceleration to higher prices of beverage and tobacco, food and non-alcoholic beverages, as well as housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels. — Karl Angelo N. Vidal