Peso down, but stays at P60 to a dollar level

The Philippine peso continued its downtrend for the second straight day on Friday, but remained within the P60-to-one dollar level, weighed by the weak economic growth data for the second quarter of 2026.

The local currency shed 8.5 centavos to close at P60.9:$1 from Thursday’s finish of P60.815:$1.

Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. chief economist Michael Ricafort said the peso weakened further “after the softer local GDP (gross domestic product) growth data for second quarter 2026 at 2.3%.”

The economy, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP)—the value of goods and services produced in a period— grew 2.3% in the April to June 2026 period, slower than the 2.8% growth seen in the first quarter of 2026.

This is the economy’s weakest footing since the fourth quarter of 2009 —excluding the contraction seen during the COVID-19 pandemic years— when the GDP growth rate was at 1.8%.

The 2.8% second quarter GDP growth put the Philippines behind its neighbors in Southeast Asia that already released their April to June economic growth rates such as Indonesia at 5.29%, Vietnam at 8.39%, and Singapore at 5.7%.

The first half of 2026 GDP growth rate stood at 2.6%, still behind the government’s downwardly revised target of 3.5% to 4.5% for the entire year

Nevertheless, Ricafort said the US dollar/peso exchange rate remained relatively stable after some resistance recently “amid possible intervention/smoothening of market volatility at P61.60-P61.80 levels/range highs recently.” — RSJ, GMA News