• The Philippine peso dropped past the key 58-per-dollar level, putting pressure on the central bank to step up efforts to support the currency.
• The peso fell 0.4% to 58.15 per dollar on Tuesday, the lowest since late 2022. The decline widens its loss this year to about 4.5%.
• Emerging markets have been under pressure this year from bouts of dollar strength, forcing nations like Indonesia to tap into their dollar reserves to shield their currencies. In the Philippines, reserves fell to $102.6 billion in April. Central bank Governor Eli Remolona signaled last week that authorities could begin reducing the benchmark rate as early as August.
• Last month, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas indicated it was ready to intervene to stabilize the peso while the government vowed in late 2022 to act aggressively to stop the currency from “breaching 60” pesos per greenback.