The Philippine peso slumped to 48.50 against the US dollar on Friday as it ended at a new seven-year low after ending at 48.33 the previous day

The peso closed weaker for the fifth straight week, losing 1.06 percent of its value. For the month of September, the peso shed four percent.

Deputy central bank governor Diwa Gunigundo said external factors were behind the peso’s decline against the dollar because based on economic fundamentals, the currency’s value should not be at this level

“You have OPEC cutting down oil output, the direction of US Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy. A bank is in the news. Regional currencies are also being affected,” said Gunigundo in a radio interview.

Gunigundo said people pulling out of the stock market converted their pesos to dollars and this has created demand for the greenback. “But it is wrong to say that people have pulled out of the market. Our data indicates otherwise,” he added.

Stocks fell, extending a two-month decline, as the composite index lost 1.1 percent to finish at 7,629.73 points despite more foreign buying.

Foreigners bought 9.8 billion pesos worth of shares and sold 5.971 billion pesos.

The services index dragged the market as it lost 2.3 percent. The mining and oil index lost 0.64 percent. DMS