The Philippine peso weakened to a record intraday low of 61.995 per dollar on Wednesday, surpassing the previous record of 61.847 set on July 24, before closing at 61.815. Renewed Middle East tensions and volatile global fuel prices increased demand for the dollar as a safe-haven asset, adding pressure to the peso, which has traded in the 61-to-one-dollar range and lost more than 5% this year. The currency’s decline coincided with a 1.70% drop in the benchmark PSEi to 6,158.34, while the All Shares index fell 1.29% to 3,396.35. The weaker peso raises concerns about imported inflation because dollar-denominated fuel and food become more expensive, potentially complicating the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ monetary policy. The central bank has raised its policy rate to 4.75% and intervened in the foreign-exchange market, while President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has indicated that the Philippines will not use all of its foreign-exchange reserves to defend the currency. Reserves have fallen nearly 7% to $103 billion.