CENTRAL-bank intervention propped up the peso on Thursday after most Asian currencies fell on widening global credit concerns, currency traders said.

Without central-bank intervention, the peso would have gone on a “freefall” after investors kept off local stocks. The stock market yesterday fell 4.25 percent because of investor nervousness over credit troubles in the US.

The peso closed up to P46.96, P47.080 on Wednesday.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas prevented the peso from touching P47.30, a trader from a universal bank said.

Another trader said the market is “almost not determined” by oil prices anymore, as the credit crunch has taken center stage and the market’s main driver.

Analysts call on central banks to provide liquidity

CENTRAL banks in Asia must now provide liquidity to financial markets instead of managing prices, analysts convened by the Asian Development Bank at a conference said on Thursday.

OFW remittances may not be sustainable in the long term

MONEY sent by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) may not be sustainable in the long term unless adequate reforms are put in place, according to economists and legislators.

Remittance fees, charges to stay

THE government is not intent on scrapping remittance fees and is instead attempting to create stiff competition among banks and remittance firms to lower the cost of sending money to the Philippines, a central bank official said yesterday.

BSP props up peso to P46.96

CENTRAL-bank intervention propped up the peso on Thursday after most Asian currencies fell on widening global credit concerns, currency traders said.

Customs bureau pleases PCCI, not FPI

THE Bureau of Customs (BOC) may have pleased the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) for its above-par performance so far, but not the Federation of Philippines Industries (FPI), whose members continue to feel the pinch of having to compete with imported goods that are being smuggled into the country.