THE Philippine peso could end 2019 at P51 to the US dollar before depreciating further next year amid the government’s accelerating expenditure, particularly for infrastructure projects, according to an analyst.

In a roundtable in Makati City on Friday, Leong Sook Mei, MUFG Bank Ltd. head of global markets research for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, said the local currency could cap this year at the P51:$1 level before weakening to as low as the P52.50:$1 by the third quarter of 2020.