The peso fell to another low against the US dollar, the fourth in a week, on Thursday.

It ended at P63.52 against the greenback from P63.361 on Wednesday. Since October 15, when the peso finished at P63.06, the Philippine currency has lost 46 centavos.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Eli Remolona said in a press briefing on Thursday that a decision by the Monetary Board to hike the policy rate by 50 basis points was not to defend the peso but to curb inflation.

''We are not hiking the policy rate to defend the peso. We do intervene a little bit in the foreign exchange market but that is mainly to avoid swings in the exchange rate that tend to be inflationary. we have estimates how much the peso has to move before it becomes inflationary and that's when we tend to intervene,'' explained Remolona.

He did not reveal the threshold ''because it may help speculators.''

''Average headline inflation is expected to remain high in 2027 and approach our 3.0-percent target in 2028,'' the central bank said.

The Monetary Board recognized the need for a strong monetary policy response to broadening price pressures and further upside risks to inflation. Such a decisive response will make monetary policy appropriately restrictive. This will contain second-round effects and firmly anchor inflation expectations. PHS