For the fifth consecutive trading day, the Philippine peso sank to still another new all-time weakest position, closing at 57.18:$1 on Thursday (Sept 8).
The local currency lost 4.5 centavos against the greenback from the previous closing of 57.135:$1 on Sept. 7.
Nicholas Mapa, senior Philippines economist at ING Bank, said that while it might be true that the peso has simply fallen victim to a resurgent dollar, it has been weaker than most other currencies, having lost more than 10 percent of its value against the US dollar since the start of 2022.
Michael Ricafort, chief economist at the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., said peso further weakened partly due to the seasonal third-quarter increase in importation by some manufacturers in preparation for the seasonal increase in demand during the fourth quarter.