NEWSFLASH

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PESO CLIMB CONTINUES, NOW P40.117=$1

Manila, Feb 6, 1998 - The peso opened strong yesterday, at P39.40/dollar. Later in the day, very strong corporate demand for foreign currencies pushed the peso down a bit, to close at P40.117=$1, still higher than Tuesday's close of P40.133.

Demand pressure caused a heavy volume of transactions, totalling $204.90 million. Foreign banks led the sale of dollars.

The peso rally was helped by the strengthening of neighboring countries' currencies.

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