This has not prompted a remarkable increase in remittances by UAE-based Filipinos, however, as most of them send home a fixed amount on a regular basis, according to Sally Cortez, a branch manager at Al Fardan Exchange. The peso had yesterday fallen steadily against the dollar after Iran's Hossein Kazempour Ardebili, governor of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, said that the group has no plan meet before September to review output and oil prices.

Crude has doubled in the past year, prompting consumers to hold on to their dollars as concerns on the impending rise of commodity prices become widespread, analysts have told reporters in Manila, which imports almost all oil needed by the country. Crude oil for June delivery reached $126.40 per barrel on Sunday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. This was the highest price since the exchange began trading in 1983.   

While it closed 2007 as the strongest performing Asian currency, the peso first dropped to the 42-level against the dollar, or 11.41 to the dirham, on May 2. This is based on the rates being used by four major Philippine banks having tie-ups with exchange bureaux in the UAE.

The three-year high inflation of 8.3 per cent, the biggest since it touched 8.5 per cent in May 2005, was recorded last month on higher food prices brought about by, among others, the rising cost of production and transport.

The April inflation rate was a surge from the 6.4 per cent rise in the consumer price index in March, the Philippines' National Statistics Office has said. The first four months saw an average inflation rate of 6.2 per cent.

While the dirham is pegged at 3.67 to the dollar, or 3.68 at exchange bureaux, the money sent home by migrant workers is first converted into the greenback by remittance centres and then into the peso by the receiving banks. 

Filipinos in the UAE sent home Dh383.1 million ($104.3 million) in January and February, up 26.5 per cent from Dh302.6 million ($82.4 million) a year ago. Remittances from the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait reached a total of Dh1.4 billion ($389.9 million) in the first two months, an 11. 2-per cent rise from the Dh1.3 billion ($350.5 million) sent during the same months last year.