Peso opens 2019 on a firm note vs. dollar

The Philippine peso opened the year on a firm note on Wednesday, the first trading day of the 2019, after a four-day weekend.

The local currency gained 6.5 centavos to close Wednesday at P52.515:$1 from the P52.580:$1 last Friday, December 28, the last trading day of 2018.

“Partly due to accumulated supply of US dollars converted to pesos for holiday spending during the long New Year weekend,” Michael Ricafort, economist at the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., said.

Monday, December 31, and Tuesday, January 1, were earlier declared regular holidays by Malacañang.

Ricafort noted the market expects the latest inflation data would show consumer prices further eased in December.

“The peso ... also stronger ahead of the latest inflation data due on Jan. 4, 2019 as inflation is widely expected to ease further, which fundamentally supports the peso,” he said.

Inflation registered at 6.0 percent in November, slower than the 6.7 percent in both September and October.

The greenback also softened due to recent economic data released in the United States.

“Weaker US economic data recently such as Pending Home Sales and Dallas Fed factory index also caused a weaker US dollar,” Ricafort said. —VDS, GMA News