MANILA (UPDATE) - The Philippine peso again fell versus the US dollar, touching P57.9 at the close of Monday's trading, according to the website of the Bankers Association of the Philippines.

This was the peso's weakest level since November 10, 2022, when the peso closed at P58.19 to the dollar.

Since the start of the year, the peso has lost P2.23 against the greenback, or 4 percent.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas however has said that the peso's depreciation was not a case of the local currency's weakness but of the dollar's strength.

Analysts have been saying that expectations that the US Federal Reserve will keep US interest rates high for a much longer period have been propping up the dollar.

During the Monetary Board's rate-setting meeting last week, BSP Deputy Governor Francisco Daila Jr. noted that the peso's depreciation was "in the middle of the pack" when compared to regional peers.

During the May 16 monetary briefing, Dakila noted that the Thai baht had weakened by around 7 percent, the Korean won by 5.3 percent, the Taiwanese dollar by 5.2 percent, the Indonesian rupiah by 4 percent, and the Singaporean dollar by 2.4 percent.

"If you compare the volatility of the peso against the other currencies, it [the peso] is not really that volatile. Other currencies in the region have weakened more than the peso," Dakila said.

Meanwhile, in an interview with Bloomberg last May 17, BSP Governor Eli Remolona said the central bank has been intervening in the foreign exchange market, but only to avoid high volatility.  

"We have, in small amounts not to really affect the value of the peso, more to keep markets orderly," Remolona said.

He added that the dollar has been broadly strong dollar for the past several weeks, and the BSP does not feel obliged to intervene, except to keep the market orderly.

"We don't have a target for the peso, we're more or less letting the peso float but we worry about stress and it hasn't happened yet in the last few months."