MEXICO CITY (appro).—The peso reached its best level against the dollar, not seen since December 2015, after the US Federal Reserve (Fed) decided to pause interest rate increases in that country.
In bank windows, the green ticket was offered in 17.37 units; while at the interbank level it was quoted at 17.12 pesos, which means an appreciation of 0.66 percent.
According to Banco Base’s analysis, the dollar has lost ground since morning, in anticipation of the Fed’s monetary policy announcement, which at 12:00 noon confirmed a pause in the cycle of interest rate increases, which will be lies between 5.00 and 5.25%.
It is worth mentioning that, until May, the Fed had raised the rate in 10 consecutive announcements, accumulating an increase of 500 base points in that period.
On the other hand, the peso shows an appreciation in the year of 12.26%, ranking as the second most appreciated currency against the dollar behind the Colombian peso with 14.03%.
“A low exchange rate affects Mexican exports, since the appreciation of the peso is seen directly as a decrease in the price of exporters, so in the short term the profit margin decreases and in the long term exports lose competitiveness ”, explained the analysis.
He added that the appreciation also affects the purchasing power of remittances, because if the exchange rate continues at levels close to 17.11 pesos per dollar for the rest of 2023, in the year the purchasing power of remittances would show a fall of 11.1%, being the largest on record.
During the session, the most appreciated currencies in the broad basket of main crosses were: the South African rand with 1.54%, the Polish zloty with 1.10%, the Brazilian real with 1.09%, the New Zealand dollar with 0.94%, and the Mexican peso with 0.66 % and the Czech crown with 0.58%. The most depreciated currencies were: the South Korean won with 0.55%, the Israeli shekel with 0.53%, the Swedish crown with 0.32%, the Argentine peso with 0.31% and the Indonesian rupiah with 0.27%.
