Economy

Transparency, lowering the cost of doing business particularly on power rates and a plan for President Aquino’s Private-Public Partnership (PPP) projects were the three foremost demands of local executives who converged for the 37th Philippine Business Conference (PBC).

IT’S official. The Aquino administration has settled for lower growth targets for this year and 2012, notwithstanding a new fiscal stimulus package for the remainder of 2011.

President Benigno Aquino III unveiled Wednesday a P72-billion stimulus package of public works and poverty reduction projects as a weakening global economy forced the country to cut growth forecasts.

MANILA, Philippines – Monetary authorities said yesterday the planned P72-billion fiscal stimulus package of the Aquino administration would help pump prime the economy amid a stable exchange rate and benign inflation environment.

The government unveiled a P72-billion package to stimulate the weakening economy but the details of the program showed that most of the projects were already incorporated in the 2012 budget and were reclassified as components of scheme.

The realization must have hit like a thunderbolt. The sustained decline in our rate of growth is due principally to the collapse in public spending since this administration took over.

MANILA – The Philippines cut its growth and trade forecasts for this year and the next on uncertainty over the global recovery, government officials told a Senate budget hearing on Wednesday.

It is now beyond one year in the Noynoy Aquino presidency. It is possible to make some temporary judgments and assessments about the way we are led. In general, the country has moved forward well. In another vein, much more needs to be done. He promises transformational leadership. In some areas, we get passive leadership…

THE WORLD BANK has joined other multilateral institutions in trimming growth forecasts for the Philippines, citing a weaker-than-expected first half and renewed global turmoil.

A NEW York-based think tank said the Philippine economy would likely slow down until next year on expectations the Aquino administration’s public-private partnership (PPP) scheme would fail to take off in the near term.

MANILA, Philippines – US-based investment bank Citigroup downgraded anew its economic growth forecasts for the Philippines this year and next year on the back of fiscal underspending, weak external demand, supply chain disruption as well as the global fiscal storm brought about by the debt crisis in the US and Europe.

PHILIPPINE economic managers have ruled out meeting their growth target for this year, but said the country’s expansion would continue to outpace that of advanced nations even if the euro zone resolves its debt crisis.

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang is optimistic that the Philippines’ economic freedom ranking would improve due to the government’s reform efforts.

DEVELOPMENT Bank of Singapore (DBS) projects the Philippine economy will expand by more than third in less than a decade when the reforms introduced by the present government bear fruits.

WASHINGTON – Reflecting a drop in levels of economic freedom around the world, the Philippines slid in the global rankings to 89th place from 76th previously among 141 countries surveyed, the Economic Freedom of the World: 2011 annual report said.

International Labor Organization (ILO) Director-General Jose Somavia implored regulatory bodies to make labor market policies “that promote, in the near term, high levels of productive investment and job creation in sustainable enterprises of the real economy… to avoid sliding into a possible recession.”

MANILA, Philippines – The government needs to boost spending to fuel the economy, economists agreed during a recent forum concluded jointly by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The ratings of countries in the region, including the Philippines, are threatened as a result of weaker-than-expected global growth, sovereign debt concerns in Europe, and potential tightening in funding conditions, credit watchdog Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said in a report.

Three different crises are simultaneously taking place and we are helplessly watching as bystanders. Yet, these developments have an impact on us. These dramas are the US economic recovery slowdown; the European debt crisis; and the Arab spring of revolutions across the Middle East. (In previous columns, I have discussed the US economic issues).

The Philippines is now 20 years behind dynamic neighbors in Asia in creating wealth and new jobs and solving its chronic poverty problem.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) slashed its growth forecast for the country this year to 4.7 percent from five percent previously as a result of “subdued government spending” and weak exports receipts, saying that increased public and private investment may see a pickup in economic activity next year.

MANILA, Philippines – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has downgraded its full-year growth outlook for the Philippines to 4.7 percent from a five percent forecast in July, the Manila-based lender said.

MANILA/HONG KONG – Asia’s emerging economies will grow robustly into 2012, led once again by China, although troubles in the United States, Europe and Japan will clip their momentum, the Asian Development Bank said in an updated economic outlook released on Wednesday.

MANILA, Philippines – The economy is likely to grow anywhere from 4.3 percent to 4.8 percent this year, lower than the official growth assumption of five percent to six percent and the government’s aspirational target of seven percent to eight percent, a government think-tank said in its latest report on the economy.

Last of two parts “THE revision of growth targets is a possibility,” Economic Planning Secretary Paderanga said after the release of GDP data. “The DBCC will study what we can do in terms of improving government spending and guarding against the global slowdown. We will also take into consideration the upside factors such as the…

MANILA, Philippines – Zurich-based Credit Suisse has lowered the economic growth forecast of the Philippines together with other countries in the Asia Pacific Region this year and next year as advanced economies led by the US are teetering on the brink of recession.

Even from her sickbed, Gloria Arroyo doesn’t stop. The full-page ad boasting of her achievements does it all over again. She made similar preposterous claims in January last year and we destroyed them in an article entitled “Fairyland”. I guess we have to do it all over again.

The current policy of the Aquino administration to screen budget releases may have done the economy more harm than good, minutes of the last Monetary Board (MB) meeting showed.

First of two parts A HOPEFUL chorus from top government officials heralded the August 31 release of Philippine economic data. A week and a half before, Finance Undersecretary Gil Beltran put April-June real growth in gross domestic product at “slightly better than 4.9 percent [in the first quarter], because of higher government spending and power…

MANILA, Philippines – More companies in the Philippines are planning to expand their operations and hire more workers in the fourth quarter of the year in anticipation of a strong domestic demand during the Christmas season, a survey conducted by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed.