Remittances up 6% on year, slowest in 5 months MANILA, Philippines – Remittances growth slowed to a 5-month low in February, amid a strong peso and the weak recovery of the jobs market abroad.

Urges PH, other countries to start containing inflation The World Bank has warned that the Philippines and a few other Asian countries were facing threats of overheating and suggested that policymakers start shifting focus from boosting economies to containing the buildup of inflationary pressures.

Philippine export earnings in February fell by a hefty 15.6 percent from last year, the National Statistics Office reported last week. The fall largely traces to an even heftier drop during the same period (-36.5 percent) in our electronics exports, which still comprise our single largest export product category. Global demand for personal computers has…

After the euphoria-inducing investment-grade rating given to the Philippines during the Lenten break, a string of not-so-good news has hit the economic front. Foreign direct investments—or money that goes into productive undertakings like tourism, agriculture, or industrial projects—registered a net inflow of $576 million in January, down by nearly half from $1.05 billion posted in…

China’s new leaders in Beijing China’s new leaders have vowed to boost growth and make it more inclusive China’s economy, the world’s second-largest, has slowed and performed worse than many analysts expected in the first three months of the year.

(Financial Times) — The global economy is stuck in a rut, unable to sustain a decent recovery and susceptible to a sudden stall, according to the latest Brookings Institution-Financial Times tracking index of recovery.

LISBON – After a bungled bailout of Cyprus, the recession-stricken euro zone will stand out for the wrong reasons when finance ministers meet in Washington this week to run the rule over the global economy.

MANILA, Philippines – Transcom Philippines, a unit of Luxemburg-based Transcom Worldwide S.A., is bullish about the prospects of the local information technology-business process outsourcing (IT-BPO) industry and is set to increase its workforce by 35 percent.

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Tourism secured a $7.1 million grant from the Canadian International Development Agency to improve the competitiveness of the local tourism industry from 2013-2016, the state agency reported on Wednesday.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine government is pushing for certain amendments to the Labor Code in the next Congress as the country’s labor practices are being reviewed by the US to determine if the country should continue to enjoy trade benefits under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program.

MANILA, Philippines – The government is keeping its 15 percent export growth target for this year as it sees the electronic sector’s recovery in the coming months and expects the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry to remain strong.

MANILA, Philippines – Filipinos employed by foreign governments, embassies, diplomatic missions and several international organizations are not exempted from paying income taxes, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) said in a memorandum circular.

MANILA, Philippines – Strong economies in the Asian region are slowly losing their luster as the low interest environment here and abroad is beginning to cause some problems, an investment bank said.

MANILA, Philippines – The World Bank has maintained its gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecasts for the Philippines at 6.2 percent and 6.4 percent for 2013 and 2014, respectively, as the country continues to show signs of sustained growth.

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Amid increasing tensions in the Korean peninsula, Filipino workers continue to seek jobs in Seoul, South Korea’s capital, but the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) said there are no takers for female workers so far. POEA Administrator Hans Leo Cacdac said on Monday that the government has temporarily stopped accepting female workers for registration for…

If I approached the Supreme Court’s recent decision on the party-list system by way merely of a mechanical exercise in statutory construction, I might conclude that the Court has stripped the party-list system of its soul. The party-list system is not merely a restructuring of the membership of the House of Representatives. It is a…

MANILA, Philippines – Workers in the agriculture sector are among the lowest paid in the country, the National Statistical Coordination Board said, making poverty widespread in the industry as it employs a third of the labor force.

UNFAIR TELCOS: The National Telecommunications Commission should stop cellphone companies from holding hostage their contracted users by making them pay a flat pretermination penalty when they opt out before their two-year term is over.

MANILA, Philippines – The armed conflict in Sabah has displaced over 7,000 Filipinos, and disaster officials of the Autonomous Region For Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) are expecting thousands more to arrive in the region in the coming months.

MANILA, Philippines – The Catholic lay group White Vote Movement endorsed yesterday six “Team Buhay” senatorial candidates as a show of force to deliver six million votes to those who voted against the passage of the Reproductive Health Law last year.

Google’s executive chairman has made a bold prediction about the spread of the Internet. Do you think that prediction will come true?

MUCH has been said about how relatively low the inflow of foreign direct investments to the Philippines is compared to other countries in the region. Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows to the country actually went up by 9.8 percent from 2011 to $2.03 billion in 2012, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

Sixto Donato C. MacasaetSixto Donato C. MacasaetAround two weeks ago (third week of March 2013), I was at a regional workshop of civil society organizations (CSOs) to evaluate the Bottom-Up Budgeting (BUB) process for the year 2014.

A former director general of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) said on Sunday that the power problem in southern Philippines is expected to drag down the economy, which is projected to grow by 6 percent to 7 percent this year.

Paper by Bruegel scholars forms basis for discussions at Ecofin meeting in Dublin The European Union’s economic growth strategy has been a failure so far and unless bold steps are taken the economy will continue to stagnate, a study commissioned by EU finance ministers said.

MANILA, Philippines – Putting in place a trade dispute settlement system, plus further liberalization of transport systems, as well as stronger linkages between the private support organizations and traders are all necessary as the Southeast Asian region is heading towards economic integration, government and private sector officials said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – Capital flows to Southeast Asia have not reached pre-crisis levels, but central banks in the region would likely impose more measures to temper them and prevent a repeat of the financial crises in 1997 and 2008, an investment bank said.

I’ve attended so many seminars, read so many books on motivation and personal development, heard thousands of audio files and learned so many things, that it becomes impossible for me to share everything in a lifetime. But if I could condense my learnings into two vital life lessons, it would be these two:

MANILA, Philippines – The declining share of agriculture in the Philippine economy could be a reason for the country’s high poverty incidence.