MANILA - China's decision to ease its currency peg will help boost Philippine exports, Philippine Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Augusto Santos said Tuesday.
Santos said in an interview with reporters that the move is " good news" to the Philippines.
"That is good news for us because it means that China will be in a position to buy more of our exports. That will mean the Chinese yuan will become more expensive on the part of China to export than to import. That means they will have the penchant to buy more and that's good news for us in terms of our Philippine exports," Santos said.
Next only to the US and Japan, China is the Philippines' third biggest export market. In April, Philippine exports to China hit over $350 million.
The Chinese central bank announced over the weekend that it would loosen the yuan's de facto peg to the US dollar and allow it to become more flexible.