Peso climbs up as Philippines, Asian economies look good to investors

MANILA, Philippines—The peso inched up on Wednesday as the belief that the Philippines and other Asian economies would perform favorably despite the challenging global climate prompted yield-seeking investors to place funds again in Asia.

The local currency closed at 43.155 against the US dollar, up by 13.5 centavos from 43.29:$1 on Tuesday.

Intraday high hit 43.14:$1, while intraday low settled at 43.24:$1. Volume of trade amounted to $916.79 million from $1.005 billion previously.

Traders said concerns on the eurozone debt crisis was still high, but that the interest of investors to search for yields naturally led them to purchase portfolio assets from emerging Asian economies like the Philippines, where growth projections have been much more favorable than those for the US and eurozone economies.

Emerging markets have been seen to be affected by the turmoil being created by the eurozone crisis, but traders said that investors wanting to augment profits would have no other prudent choice of investment sites but those of the emerging markets.

The Philippines is expected by its government to grow between 4.5 and 5.5 percent this year. This growth projection is a slowdown from the over 7 percent last year, but is much better than the performance of eurozone economies.

Advanced economies in the West are growing by only less than 2 percent.