MANILA – The Philippine peso still has the capacity to strengthen towards the end of the year given the seasonal upticks in remittance inflows and domestic demand, an economist said Thursday.
Michael Ricafort, Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation chief economist, in a reply to questions from the Philippine News Agency, said higher sales and demand locally and in the export market in the last quarter of the year will help buoy the local currency against the US dollar.
“The seasonal increase in OFW (overseas Filipino workers) remittances, export sales, and other US dollar sales/earnings/income to be converted to pesos in [fourth quarter] in time for the Christmas holiday-related spending (will help the peso),” he said.
Data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) as of 2023 show that OFW remittances for December registered the highest figure over the 12-month…
