DUBAI: The current peso-dirham exchange rate, which has been hovering at the Ph14.15 range in the past weeks, will stay that way for the next two months, top remittance company officials told The Filipino Times.
“The Philippine Peso has lost some momentum against the dollar recently, and by extension, against the UAE dirham,” Sudhesh Giriyan, Xpress Money chief operating officer said.
He explained that the weakening of the peso could be attributed to the speculation in the market about the US rate hikes which is expected to surge inflation.
“Additionally, as the US dollar has been gaining strength during the last couple of years, other Asian currencies along with the Indian Rupee are in a state of flux (flowing out) – which can also be another reason for this currency weakening,” Giriyan added.
For his part, Promoth Manghat, UAE Exchange Group chief executive officer, said the dollar has actually started to weaken against the euro, pound and yen by end 2017 and this eventually perpetuated into the early weeks of January.
“This resulted in most of the Asian currencies gaining strength; but it was short-lived as the recent minor bounce in the dollar had a weakening impact on Asian currencies with peso and the Indian Rupee being hit the hardest,” said Manghat.
The Philippine Peso, he said, was very recently at its lowest against the dollar at 52.111, a trend not seen in the last 12 years, according to him.
“The weakness can be attributed to the dollar strengthening and we feel that the trend will prolong for the next couple of months, with the peso sliding further owing to domestic and international factors,” Manghat said.
