Peso may move sideways before data

THE PESO could move sideways against the dollar this week before the release of October Philippine inflation data.

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On Thursday, the local unit closed at P58.85 versus the greenback, dropping by 16 centavos from its P58.69 finish on Wednesday, Bankers Association of the Philippines data showed.

Philippine financial markets were closed on Oct. 31 for a holiday.

Week on week, the peso fell by 22.5 centavos from its P58.625 per dollar close on Oct. 24.

For this week, the market could take cues from the October consumer price index (CPI) report to be released on Wednesday (Nov. 5), a trader said in a phone interview.

A Business World poll of 17 analysts yielded a median estimate of 1.8% for the October CPI, within the central bank's 1.4-2.2% forecast for the month.

If realized, headline inflation would have picked up slightly from the 1.7% clip in September but slowed from the 2.3% seen in the same month last year.

This would also be the fastest print in eight months or since the 2.1% logged in February.

Still, this would be the eighth month in a row that inflation was below the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) annual 2-4% target.