Philippine Peso - Dollar Exchange Rate Review

Unbelievably it was difficult to search on the history of the Peso to Dollar exchange on the internet. It took me more almost a week to find one that would really show a history since the 1960s or earlier. And I had to dig deep into the web site. It simply just shows that many did not care about keeping records on it. To my recollection, the Philippine Peso was somewhere 4 is to 1 Dollar in the 1960s. And, had gone up to something like 7 Pesos to a Dollar in the early 1970s when the first oil crisis came about.

In my search for a history in this I was surprised to find one at seaquestdivecenter! It was posted by Benjamin A. Usigan under the title "The Evolution of Philippine Exchange Rate Policies". It was updated only until 1992. Here's an excerpt of some of the exchange rates on the article that I am quoting directly:

"From the post-war period up to the beginning of the 1960s, the Philippines maintained the official par value of P2.00 to US$1.00.

In response, the monetary authorities adopted a multi-tier exchange rate system starting April 1960. Under this system, exporters were allowed to surrender 75 percent nof their foreign exchange receipts at the official rate while the remaining 25 percent was valued at the free rate initially set at P3.20 to $1.00.

In November 1960, the decontrol program enlarged the amount of transactions valued at the free market rate to 50 percent of all foreign exchange receipts with the exchange rate at the free market reduced to P3.00 to $1.00.

On November 8, 1965, the decontrol program was completed and the peso was devalued to P3.90 to a dollar.

On February 21, 1970, the Philippines adopted the floating rate system with the first interbank guiding rate subsequently determined at P5.6282 to US$1.00 on February 24, 1970.

The peso's exchange rate experienced two hefty depreciations in 1983: from P10.083 per US$.00 in May to P11.0015 per US$1.00 in June (9.1 percent) and from P11.002 per US$1.00 in September to P14.002 per US$1.00 in October (27.3 percent).

After June 1984, when the peso depreciated by 28.6 percent from P14.002 to P18.002, the peso thereafter settled at P19.97 at the end of 1984 and appreciated by 7 percent to P18.4 in January 1985."

Source: http://www.seaquestdivecenter.net/peso-history.html

In early 2007, if I remember right, it had gone to something like 56.00 Pesos to a Dollar! As of now the exchange rate hoovers at around 47.00 pesos to a dollar. If my memory serves me right, the biggest jump was some time in 1984 when the exchange rate jumped from somewhere 7 is to 1 to 14 Pesos to a Dollar! I would say I remember that correctly because we had to stop construction of a house extension due to the sudden increase in construction materials.