THE weakening of the Philippine peso against the US dollar has no significant impact to the local industry thus, there is no need to worry, a business leader said on Wednesday.
Frank Carbon, regional governor of Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) in Western Visayas and Negros Island Region (NIR), said those that will be much affected are the “hot money.”
These are the money invested in the Philippines stock market being moved towards the US or other stock markets around the world for higher rates of return, Carbon explained.
“We are not worried over the current depreciation of peso as it will not affect local business operations,” he said, adding that relatives of the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in the province, who are potential consumers, would even celebrate as they are getting more pesos for every dollar.
The tendency is that dollar holders will wait for the peso to weaken some more then unload their dollars, Carbon also said.
On Monday, it was reported that the Philippine peso hit a seven-year low in heavy trading as importers’ dollar demand added to downward pressure stemming from stock outflows.
Reports showed that peso lost 0.60 percent to 48.26 per dollar, its weakest since September 2009.
Aside from the families of Filipino migrant workers, exporters are also seen to benefit while importers will be the one to suffer.
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) had said that the depreciation of peso is a result of the strengthening of dollar more than the former’s weakening.
However, the slide would not take very long as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is now looking at the situation, it assured.
Meanwhile, Negros Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. appealed to Negrense consumers to avoid buying imported products in the meantime.
“That is good for our OFWs and our export businesses,” Marañon said.
However, “we cannot only avoid buying imported fuels,” he added. (EPN/TDE with reports from Sunnex)