Foreign exchange
• Previous week: The local currency moved to appreciate on average from May 18 to 22. In particular, the peso hit 44.49 to a dollar on Monday, which decelerated to 44.51 to a dollar and 44.6 to a dollar on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. Thursday’s trade saw the biggest improvement at 44.49 to a dollar, with the week ending at 44.545 to a dollar. The total treaded volume during the period was at $2.402 billion, lower than the $3.38 billion in the previous week. The average value of the peso is at 44.527 to a dollar during the week, stronger than the 44.641 to a dollar average in the previous week.
• Week ahead: Traders in the Philippines’s foreign-exchange platform are seen to move with caution in the first few days of the week, as markets await the economic-growth data both from the Philippines and the US set to be released within the week.
GDP (Q1)
Thursday May 28
• Previous quarter: The local economy grew at a robust pace of 6.9 percent in the last quarter of 2014, putting the average growth of the country for the entire year at 6.1 percent—below government expectations but above the average growth of the region. The robust performance of Industry sector, particularly by Manufacturing and Construction, and supported by the Trade, Real Estate, Renting and Business Activities, and Transport, Storage and Communication, boosted the fourth-quarter performance and paved the way for the annual gross domestic product to post a growth of 6.1 percent, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
• Quarter ahead: In its latest Asia-Pacific Economic Preview, Moody’s Analytics said that the gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the Philippines likely ticked up a notch to have grown at a 7.3-percent pace in the quarter ending March this year after the 6.9-percent growth seen in the last three months of 2014. Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund was of a different view, saying that the first-quarter GDP is seen to hit between 6.3 percent and 6.9 percent for the country.