The Philippines’ trade in goods with the rest of the world rose 5 percent year-on-year to in the first quarter of the year amid an overall recovering global economy from last year’s pandemic-induced recession. The latest preliminary Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data showed that merchandise exports from January to March grew by 7.6 percent year-on-year…
Recovery from the pandemic-induced recession will entail not only fast-tracking mass vaccination and sustaining infrastructure development but also some more additional reforms pushed by President Duterte’s economic team on Monday. Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III told the virtual forum that earlier reforms put in place by the Duterte administration eased COVID-19’s impact on the Philippine…
While most other multilateral institutions had slashed their respective 2021 gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecasts for the Philippines, the Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF) even raised its projection to 6.9 percent from 6.6 percent previously.The IMF’s April 2021 World Economic Outlook (WEO) report also projected a 6.5-percent GDP growth next year which , however,…
MANILA, Philippines — The health maintenance organization (HMO) sector’s bottom line soared by 660.36 percent to P6.77 billion during the first nine months of 2020 as sales inched up amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The latest Insurance Commission (IC) data showed 24 HMO firms’ total net income as of end-September last year jumped from P890.2 billion…
Manufacturing sustained year-on-year growth in March, before the most stringent lockdown measures were again imposed in Metro Manila and four neighboring provinces that host economic zones and factories to contain the surge in COVID-19 infections. London-based global information provider IHS Markit Ltd. on Monday said the Philippines’ purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slightly eased to 52.2…
The additional P27.5-billion equity infused into state-run Land Bank of the Philippines (Landbank) will be injected into existing and upcoming loan programs for small businesses badly hit by the pandemic-induced recession, an official said. In a telephone interview on Wednesday, Landbank vice president and corporate affairs group head Vivian Cañonero said the Bayanihan to Recover…
It is often said—quoting national hero Jose Rizal—that the youth is the hope of the nation. In these difficult times, the country’s recovery from the pandemic-induced recession might as well depend on the young moving about, going shopping and dining out with their families. The country’s chief economist, Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua,…
Washington-based International Finance Corp. (IFC) of the World Bank Group has introduced financing support for Philippine banks that will lend to climate adaptation and mitigation projects amid a push for “green” recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic to generate trillions of dollars in fresh investments. “The program, ‘Scaling Up Climate Finance through the Financial Sector,’ is…