Philippine peso

Philippine peso
₱
The Philippine peso, also referred to by its Tagalog name piso ( Philippine English:, , plural pesos; piso ; sign: ₱; code: PHP), is the official currency of the Philippines. It is subdivided into 100 sentimo, also called centavos.

The Philippine peso sign is denoted by the symbol "₱", introduced under American rule in place of the original peso sign "$" used throughout Spanish America. Alternative symbols used are "PHP", "PhP", "Php", or just "P".

The monetary policy of the Philippines is conducted by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), established on July 3, 1993, as its central bank. It produces the country's banknotes and coins at its Security Plant Complex, which is set to move to New Clark City in Capas, Tarlac.

The Philippine peso is derived from the Spanish peso or pieces of eight brought over in large quantities from Spanish America by the Manila galleons of the period from the 16th century to the 19th. From the same Spanish peso or dollar is derived the various pesos of Spanish America, the dollars of the US and Hong Kong, as well as the Chinese yuan and the Japanese yen.

Country
  • Philippines
    The Philippines (Pilipinas), officially the Republic of the Philippines (Republika ng Pilipinas), is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It is situated in the western Pacific Ocean and consists of around 7,641 islands that are broadly categorized under three main geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The Philippines is bounded by the South China Sea to the west, the Philippine Sea to the east, and the Celebes Sea to the southwest. It shares maritime borders with Taiwan to the north, Japan to the northeast, Palau to the east and southeast, Indonesia to the south, Malaysia to the southwest, Vietnam to the west, and China to the northwest. The Philippines covers an area of 300,000 km2 and,, it had a population of around 109 million people, making it the world's thirteenth-most-populous country. The Philippines has diverse ethnicities and cultures throughout its islands. Manila is the country's capital, while the largest city is Quezon City; both lie within the urban area of Metro Manila.

    Negritos, some of the archipelago's earliest inhabitants, were followed by successive waves of Austronesian peoples. Adoption of animism, Hinduism and Islam established island-kingdoms called Kedatuan, Rajahnates, and Sultanates. The arrival of Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer leading a fleet for Spain, marked the beginning of Spanish colonization. In 1543, Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos named the archipelago Las Islas Filipinas in honor of Philip II of Spain. Spanish settlement through Mexico, beginning in 1565, led to the Philippines becoming ruled by the Spanish Empire for more than 300 years. During this time, Catholicism became the dominant religion, and Manila became the western hub of trans-Pacific trade. In 1896, the Philippine Revolution began, which then became entwined with the 1898 Spanish–American War. Spain ceded the territory to the United States, while Filipino revolutionaries declared the First Philippine Republic. The ensuing Philippine–American War ended with the United States establishing control over the territory, which they maintained until the Japanese invasion of the islands during World War II. Following liberation, the Philippines became independent in 1946. Since then, the unitary sovereign state has often had a tumultuous experience with democracy, which included the overthrow of a decades-long dictatorship by a nonviolent revolution.