NTUC Blog

THE annual meeting of the Philippine Economic Society (PES) held last week ended with a panel discussion on the outlook for the Philippine economy, now a regular feature of the organization’s yearly gathering. The panel—composed of PES past presidents Dondon Paderanga, Arsi Balisacan and yours truly, along with incoming president Art Corpuz—focused on three key…

MANILA, Philippines – The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) expects the economy to recover next year now that most of the major economies, including the United States have started registering positive growth again.

ANALYSIS The Philippines is one of the few economies that managed to grow despite a global recession, but poverty reduction remains a challenge for this developing Asian economy.

MANILA, Philippines – The World Bank has upgraded its growth forecast for the Philippines this year, reversing an earlier estimate of a 0.3-percent contraction to an expansion of 1.4 percent, as it noted that an expected global economic recovery would further lift the inflow of remittances, boost exports and encourage consumer spending.

MORE Philippine households opted to rack up debt to cope with the global financial crisis, according to state-run Philippine Institute of Development Studies (PIDS). In a presentation, Celia Reyes, PIDS senior research fellow, said the most common coping strategy adopted by households was to borrow money at 39.4 percent of survey respondents.

WASHINGTON – THE US economy exited recession in the third quarter, posting the strongest growth in two years, according to government data released on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US economy is showing more signs of firming but improvements are “small or scattered,” the Federal Reserve said Wednesday in its Beige Book survey of current conditions.

MANILA, Philippines – Fewer Filipino nurses are seeking employment in the United States, the country’s largest trade union reported yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – The World Bank said the Philippines would need to grow between six and seven percent on a sustained basis to help arrest its rising poverty incidence.

A year ago, at the height of the financial panic, the world yearned for a profitable and confident financial sector. It now has what it wants, but hates it. As joblessness soars and the hopes of hundreds of millions of people are blighted, the financial sector’s survivors are thriving. Even bonuses are back. Policymakers have…

AFTER railing against the evils of pork barrel, leftwing lawmakers yesterday demanded to know why they failed to receive their P70 million yearly allocation.

MANILA – It is possible for ordinary citizens to predict oncoming floods using a low-cost, do-it-yourself gadget. This is according to Dr. Carlos Arcilla, Director of the National Institute for Geological Sciences (NIGS) at the University of the Philippines- Diliman.

THE 3-percent interest rate that local credit card companies charge their cardholders is “excessive and unconscionable,” the Supreme Court has ruled.

QUEZON, Philippines, 25 April 2005 – While the world’s attention has been focused on the Indian Ocean tsunami, tens of thousands in the Philippines have been dealing with the aftermath of another natural disaster that has gone largely unnoticed. In December 2004 three typhoons hit the South Eastern province of Quezon, killing more than 2,000…

German President Horst Koehler has voiced concern that current efforts to reform world financial systems do not go far enough. He says that trade unions need to get involved.

MANILA, Philippines – Countries in the Southeast Asian region, including the Philippines, are expected to post steady recovery in the latter part of 2009 and in 2010 if governments continue to put in place fiscal and monetary support, Standard & Poor’s said in its latest report on the region.

Brusssels: Meetings of world trade union leaders with G20 host President Barack Obama and other heads of government in Pittsburgh on the eve of the Summit have helped push employment to the top of the agenda for action by the world’s largest economies.

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) – Developing Asia is expected to register a stronger-than-expected 3.9 percent growth this year as timely economic policies and programs implemented by Asian governments will keep the region afloat amid the global recession.

THE Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) is getting behind the high-level mission sent by the International Labor Organization (ILO) to Manila to investigate widespread complaints of violations of the rights of Filipino workers to freely organize themselves. We are absolutely supportive of the mission. We are hopeful that their findings and recommendations will…

Trade: President Obama has fired the opening salvo in a trade war with China by slapping 35% tariffs on its tires. But besides giving China a kick, this protectionism will harm Americans across the economy. Sec. 421 of the 1974 Trade Act, intended to control surges in imports.

MANILA, Philippines – Family planning advocates asked Catholic bishops yesterday to stop “distorting the truth” about the Reproductive Health Bill pending in Congress.

NIGHTMARE: Those having nightmares about possible automated cheating and failure of election in May 2010 may want to pore over our technical information on the matter. No need to define “cheating” as all Filipinos of voting age know what this fact of life — the usurping of the popular will — means.

BERLIN – The global economic crisis isn’t over yet, despite positive signals from Europe’s biggest economies, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned in comments published Saturday.

Claims of a breakthrough in the Doha round of global trade talks following last week’s ministerial in India appear to follow a familiar pattern for such meetings: namely, that such claims are a bit premature when you examine the details of what actually happened.

A year after Lehman collapse WASHINGTON, D.C.: A year ago, the financial system appeared to be on the brink of a meltdown and the future of American-style capitalism in doubt.

Mr Trichet (left) noted that central bankers from industrialised and emerging economies meeting at the Bank for International Settlements agreed that ‘we were observing a confirmation of some better indicators than previously anticipated.’

NEW DELHI (AFP) – – Ministers from key trading nations who agreed to resume stalled talks on a new global free-trade pact say big hurdles remain to clinching a deal that has eluded negotiators for years.

GOVERNMENT officials who are eyeing elective posts have already spent at least P117 million in taxpayers’ money on their so-called infomercials, according to the Commission on Audit (COA), and that is not even the grand total because not all the disbursements and contracts for these infomercials have been submitted to the COA auditors.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine economy escaped from the threat of recession as it grew 1.5 percent in the second quarter – beating most market estimates – as the government’s stimulus package boosted spending in infrastructure and social services during the period, officials said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – Encouraged by signs of improvement in the US and global financial markets, business sentiment turned bullish in the third quarter of this year.