THE peso last Friday closed at P43.75 per dollar from the seven-month low of P43.925 Thursday.

It opened at P43.84, went to P43.73 and dipped to P43.895. Total volume rose to $627 million from the $617 million Thursday.

A currency trader from a commercial bank said the main driver for the peso was the “big” drop in world pump prices of oil, which eased to $126 per barrel on Friday from $135 Thursday.

“It’s a normal market reaction that as oil prices drop, the peso grows stronger, because this would mean less cost of oil importation,” the trader said.

“There was also a technical correction in the market. What goes up must eventually come down, and vice versa. But the market is still biased toward a stronger dollar,” the trader added.

A trader from another commercial bank said there was also profit-taking from the previous week’s depreciation.

The trader said, however, that the peso may be headed toward the P44- per-dollar level.

THE money sent home by more than 8 million overseas Filipinos, also known as OFWs, may reprise the growth-boosting role played last year that helped fortify the Philippines against negative developments in the external sector, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said Friday.

LAND Bank of the Philippines has approved a P75-million loan package to the provincial government of Marinduque to “fast-track” major infrastructure projects in the province.

THE supply of money in the system, also known as domestic liquidity, surged forward in March and grew by 9.6 percent to P2.93 trillion, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said on Friday.

THE peso last Friday closed at P43.75 per dollar from the seven-month low of P43.925 Thursday.

It opened at P43.84, went to P43.73 and dipped to P43.895. Total volume rose to $627 million from the $617 million Thursday.