MANILA — The Philippines will continue to use interest rates to mitigate against inflation and may step in to defend a depreciating peso, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said on Tuesday.
“We may have to defend the peso in the coming months, but the overall forecast is that we are still doing better than other countries in terms of inflation,” Marcos posted on Twitter.
The Philippine peso, which has lost 13.5% against the U.S. dollar year-to-date, has depreciated the most of Southeast Asian currencies this year, contributing to the four-year high inflation recorded in September.
The country is monitoring external and domestic developments to see how authorities can intervene in financial markets to address risks like currency depreciation and inflation, its economic planning chief said on Tuesday.
The government can deploy monetary tools like tweaks in the interest rate and market intervention to address currency risks, Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan told a news conference after a meeting between Marcos and his economic team. — Reuters