MANILA, Philippines — The peso exchange rate closed higher at P42.60 to the US dollar yesterday at the Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp. (PDEx) from P42.66 the previous day. The weighted average rate depreciated to P42.731 from P42.713. Total volume amounted to $1.011.95 billion.

Yuan not yet reserve currency

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said yesterday the Philippines “is not yet ready” to use the Chinese yuan as a reserve currency “until such time that you can really justify that China is actually important to us in terms of investment, trade and official development assistance and services.”

“We are slowly studying the matter. We hold reserves on the basis of certain criteria. One of the requirements is for trade and debt servicing. We don’t have much debt with China. Most of our loans are denominated in yen and the US dollar.

‘‘We have a very liberal foreign-exchange regulatory system. We don’t require exporters, whether to China, Japan, or the US, to surrender their foreign-exchange earnings with the banks,’’ he pointed out. (Bloomberg)

ADD’L U.S. Sugar Quota eyed

The Philippines is “hopeful” it will get an additional sugar quota allocation of around 100,000 tons from the US, the Sugar Regulatory Administration said in an e-mailed statement.

The Philippine quota to the US is 138,827 tons, the agency said, adding that a total 118,664 tons have been exported as of the end of January. (Bloomberg)

P.S.B. Selling P3-B 10-YR Notes

Philippine Savings Bank (PSB)said yesterday it will offer P3 billion worth of unsecured subordinated Tier 2 notes.

The bank said the indicative interest rate for the 10-year notes is 5.875%. The issuance has already been approved by the central bank, it said in a statement to the stock exchange. ING Bank is the lead arranger.

Wholesale Price Index Down 7.4%

The year-on-year growth rate of the general wholesale price index (GWPI) has decelerated further to 7.4 percent in November from 8.2 percent in October.

The National Statistics Office (NSO) attributed the decline to the slower annual increases observed in the following indices: Food, 3.9 percent from 7.0 percent; beverages and tobacco, 5.8 percent from 6.6 percent; mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials, 21.9 percent from 22.2 percent; and miscellaneous manufactured articles, 2.3 percent from 4.4 percent. (EHL)