	philippine planning chief urges peso devaluation the philippines must devalue the peso if it wants its exports to remain competitive economic planning secretary solita monsod told reuters the peso dollar rate has to be undercut to make our exports more competitive monsod said an interview no question about it i m saying you cannot argue with success taiwan south korea west germany japan all those miracle economies deliberately undervalued their currencies the peso has been free floating since june it is currently at about to the u s dollar finance secretary jaime ongpin has said the government does not intend to devalue the peso and wants it to be flexible and able to continue to respond to market conditions monsod said ongpin was looking at the exchange rate from the point of view of finance if the dollar rate goes higher our debt service in terms of pesos gets higher so the financing is very difficult she said but i am looking at it in terms of the economy she said she was not trying to oppose official policy i m just saying keep it competitive i do not want it to become uncompetitive because then we are dead monsod said the ideal movement in the peso dollar rate is a movement that will reflect differences in inflation rates of the philippines versus the other country it s an arithmetic thing official figures show philippine inflation averaged pct in calendar ongpin told reporters on saturday it was expected to touch five pct this year he said the government and the international monetary fund had set the peso dollar target rate at the peso lost pct in value to slump to to the dollar when it was floated in reuter 
