Rising oil prices, Mideast conflict pummel PH peso

The Philippine peso continued to depreciate the worst among Asian currencies since the Israel-Iran war started, according to Japanese financial giant MUFG Bank Ltd.

- By BEN ARNOLD DE VERA

In a June 20 report, MUFG Global Markets Research noted that last week, “we saw a mild rebound of the United States (US) dollar (DXY index) by 0.5 percent due to safe haven flow given the rising geopolitical conflict between Israel and Iran.”

“As a result, almost all Asian currencies posted a loss against the greenback, with the Philippine peso under-performing the most in the region,” MUFG said.

Since Israel attacked Iran two weekends ago, the peso weakened by 2.2 percent to date, versus the US dollar, from June 12 levels.

MUFG noted that net oil-importing currencies like the peso, South Korean won, Indian rupee, and Thai baht all underperformed since the Middle Eastern conflict escalated.