PUBLIC SPENDING last month spiked to its highest level so far this year as government agencies responded to budget reforms, particularly a threat to withdraw all unused funds by the end of this quarter.

MARC FABER holds a doctorate in economics and has been forecasting and trading the global markets since the 1970s. Beginning in 1973, he has been based in Asia – first Hong Kong and now living in Chiangmai, Thailand, a city well known by foreign expats for an incredible German microbrewery and very numerous “hostess bars.”…

STRONG GROWTH in developing Southeast Asia is “credit positive,” Moody’s Investors Service yesterday said, with countries such as the Philippines expected to continue posting gains amid lackluster outlooks for other regional economies.

MANILA, Philippines – The passage of the proposed Anti-Racial, Ethnic and Anti-Religious Discrimination Act of 2011 faces a rough sailing in Congress after some senators thumbed down the inclusion of the lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgenders (LGBTs) provisions in the bicameral bill.

THE country’s health watchdog has been branded “feeble” in failing to prevent nearly 12,000 deaths caused by work related cancers. A Health and Safety Executive board meeting report last week revealed that cancers were to blame for 8,000 to 12,000 deaths per year due to occupational illness.

INDOLENT Indios, inhabitants of the Philippines were once called. But Corazon Juliano-Soliman resents that tag given especially to poor Filipinos. “Let’s not forget that while we’re in deep slumber, at 4 o’clock in the morning, farmers and fisherfolk are already tilling the soil or at sea, the urban poor who put the city to bed…

The Senate finance committee approved and will submit for plenary deliberations the proposed 2013 budget of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) amounting P55.98 billion—excluding budget of attached agencies—a major portion of which is the P44.26 billion for the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), or the government’s Conditional Cash-Transfer (CCT) Program, according to…

MANILA, Philippines—The government is seriously considering a plan to end the deployment of Filipino domestic helpers abroad over a period of five years.

TOKYO – Big Japanese manufacturers’ sentiment worsened in August and is expected to improve only slightly in the coming months, a Reuters poll showed, as Europe’s debt crisis, a global slowdown and a stubbornly strong yen take their toll on the export-reliant economy.

Even as the promise of an AIDS vaccine seems finally within humanity’s reach, researchers in the United States have discovered a new disease —as-yet unnamed, but fortunately non-contagious— with very AIDS-like symptoms.

Australia’s manufacturing union and the council of trade unions are pressing for the nationwide removal of asbestos by 2030 following the release of a comprehensive federal report on the hazardous substance.

German manufacturing declined in August Continue reading the main story The eurozone’s economy is set to contract by 0.5%-0.6% in the July to September quarter, tipping it into its second recession in three years, a closely-watched survey suggests.

PHILIPPINE stocks continue to draw strong foreign participation but even with the local bourse tracking a surge in foreign buying, numbers revealed that local investors remain the dominant force, Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) President Hans Sicat said on Thursday.

THE Aquino administration is on track in alleviating poverty in the Philippines, according to Secretary Corazon Soliman of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)—thanks, she said, to the Conditional Cash-Transfer (CCT) Program.

THE GOVERNMENT more than doubled its first semester fiscal deficit in July as it posted its highest monthly spending performance so far this year.

After its four-year implementation in the Philippines, the P420-million Trade Related Technical Assistance Program 2 (TRTA2) of the European Union (EU) will be have a follow up program to be launched within the year.

THE GOVERNMENT more than doubled its first semester fiscal deficit in July as it posted its highest monthly spending performance so far this year. The shortfall hit P39.249 billion last month, more than the P34.482 billion incurred in January to June and raising the tally for the year so far to P73.731 billion.

MANILA, Philippines — More than 350 foreigners, mostly Taiwanese and Chinese, were arrested Thursday by agents of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission in what authorities called the “biggest and most resolute operation” against cybercrime.

The Philippines stands to benefit from an investment boom in the coming years fueled by prevailing low interest rates, according to the regional unit of an international accounting organization.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has removed a stumbling block for those opposing the participation of questionable party-list groups and nominees in the 2013 elections by allowing them to register their concern even informally with only a letter.

Senators will ask the stakeholders in the tobacco industry on the government proposal to restructure excise taxes on tobacco and alcohol despite the admission made by Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima that the tax incrase did not lead to a reduction in the number of smokers.

More Filipino workers are expected to land jobs in New Zealand following the successful holding of the 1st Philippines-New Zealand Senior Labor Officials Meeting in Manila recently.

MANILA, Philippines – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said it supports an increase in the contribution rate in the Social Security System (SSS) and its merger with the Government Service and Insurance System (GSIS).

Jesuit university affirms stand as professors face heresy charges Faculty members who are facing possible charges of heresy for supporting a population control bill aren’t getting any sympathy from Ateneo de Manila University.

In three years, the Aquino government hopes to slash poverty incidence to 16.6 percent or half the 1991 poverty rate of 33.1 percent. According to economic planning secretary Arsenio Balisacan, the government can hack this considering that growth is high and that prices are not going up fast. To be poor means earning less than…

Banks are required by law to lend a certain percentage of their funds to agricultural ventures. A lack of borrowers from these ventures, however, forces banks to park their funds for regulatory compliance.

The Philippines has officially become the 30th member-state of the International Labor Organization (ILO) to ratify the Maritime Labor Convention (MLC) of 2006, dubbed the international seafarers’ bill of rights.

THE Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) will require call centers to post cash bonds equivalent to one-month salary and benefits of the total number of its employees. Speaking before the 888 News Forum, Director Edmund Mirasol, of the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB), said the bonds requirement was an offshoot of the closure…

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Miners roll out sacks of boulders out of a tunnel, after a 24-hour shift at one of the hundreds of small mines on the rugged slopes of Mount Diwata in southern Philippines.