It is all over but the final count and official proclamation. Based on the tally of 76% of the vote, the administration's senatorial candidates in Monday's midterm elections are set to bag 9 of the 12 seats in contention. Reports at the local level also indicate that members of the President's coalition ...

At long last, the Philippines graduated to investment grade with two international raters upgrading the sovereign's foreign credit within five weeks of each other from late March to early May. Much-awaited and most-welcomed as it shines the spotlight on the country at a time when government is busily ...

In a repeat move, the Monetary Board last week brought down the rate on its Special Deposit Accounts (SDA) while keeping key borrowing and lending rates steady. The latest 50bp reduction brings returns on SDAs to 2.5% which, added to the previous cut, will save the BSP approximately P20 billion in interest ...

There has been a fair amount of curiosity directed at last week's announcement that the national government's debt stock rose 9.8% in 2012, translating into a higher 51.4% ratio to GDP from 50.9% previously. The puzzlement stems from observations that given a primary surplus, a higher GDP growth vs....

The Philippines began 2013 in high spirits, an apt start for the Year of the Snake, whose blood is valued for its supposedly invigorating properties. A sweeping glance shows the economy seemingly on a roll, the political and reform environment looking ripe for implementing more changes, and the world ...

After cutting policy rates by a total of 100bp last year, the Monetary Board in its first meeting for 2013 decided to maintain its key overnight borrowing rate at 3.5% but reduced what it pays on fixed term Special Deposit Accounts (SDA) to 3% for all tenors. Previously priced at a premium to the overnight ...

The Philippine economy entered 2013 on an optimistic note having achieved one of the highest growth rates in the region based on latest data. But can this growth be sustained? GS sat down with the new Socio-economic Planning Secretary to hear his thoughts on this question. Just 8 months on the job,

In its latest attempt to deal with speculative inflows, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Wednesday capped individual banks’ ability to enter into non-deliverable forwards (NDF) and announced that it has also set a system-wide limit for internal monitoring. The move which was signaled to the ...

The Philippine economy raced at a 7.1% clip in the third quarter, bucking expectations of a growth slowdown as seen in analysts’ forecasts of only 5.4% on average. The country’s standout growth, way ahead of its Southeast Asian neighbors and just behind China’s, further lifted an already euphoric equities ...

The emerging consensus among Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) watchers is that the Monetary Board will cut policy rates by another 25bp on Thursday, bringing the overnight RRP rate to 3.5%. Just like the last interest rate reduction in July, we think that such a move will continue to be motivated by ...

We noted a multiplication of possible upside surprises in our last quarterly outlook, and the GDP numbers that later came out certainly reflected this. But the sources of uncertainty remain, and these are mostly external as domestic demand seems robust enough to withstand pressure. The question naturally ...

The Philippine economy grew by 5.9% in the second quarter, close to what most analysts were expecting, with demand largely driven by strong private consumption and continued rise in government spending. The momentum seems to be weakening though, with seasonally-adjusted GDP growth dropping to 0.2% q-o-q ...

The Philippines landed in the news again last week as strong, non-stop monsoon rains led to floods that submerged parts of the capital and key agricultural areas in the country’s north (Regions III and IV-A of Luzon Island), which produces over half of the nation’s rice. The disaster, which caused the ...

It was time to crow for President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino when he took the stand yesterday to make his third State of the Nation address (SONA). Only a few minutes into his hour-and-a-half-long speech, he gushed: “What was once the sick man of Asia now brims with vitality.”...

With monetary easing in the industrialized countries, resulting high interest differentials are creating exchange market pressure elsewhere in the world. In the Philippines, the change in the international monetary environment seems to be changing the way the central bank is choosing to deal with dollar ...

SURPRISE GROWTH: The Philippine economy grew by 6.4% in the first quarter, surpassing most expectations, even those of the government which had forecast a range of 5% to 6% this year. The surprising performance traced to upsides we flagged in our last quarterly report “So Far, So Good” (May 21, 2012) ...

Up until recently, it seemed like things were finally getting better for the world economy. But recent developments have shown how fragile the global economy really is, with troubles returning to the euro zone. For the Philippines, the first few months of the year had been marked by optimism in the ...

The equities market has been upbeat, with stock prices continuing to trend upwards after already more than doubling from lows reached during the global financial crisis three years ago. But looking at the domestic and global environment, can we expect the market to remain exuberant moving forward? Listening ...

Moody’s has tagged the recent change in the country’s reserve requirement (RR) policy as ‘credit negative’ for banks. In particular, it expects the termination of interest payment on reserves to cut interest yields, squeeze net interest margins (NIMs), and shrink risk-adjusted profits as credit profiles ...

The year 2012 should be a particularly auspicious one, as it belongs to the dragon, a symbol of might and intelligence and the only creature of myth and legend among the Chinese animal signs. But global recovery is expected to stall in the near term with the euro zone likely falling into a mild recession,

The economy failed to accelerate in the fourth quarter, with GDP expanding by only 3.7%. A drop in merchandise exports continued to pull down output as expected, but this time around it had been relative slowness in inventory build-up that appeared to additionally weaken investment and growth numbers....

We open the year with an interview of the Philippines’ de facto chief economist, Cayetano W. Paderanga, Jr., head of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA). The NEDA is the government agency that coordinates economic policies and investment programs of government and essentially drafts ...

GDP growth failed to pick up in the third quarter as most analysts expected (median growth of roughly 4.1% according to published polls), with output during the period expanding by just 3.2% (or 3.6% year-to-date). Government’s own expectation ranged from 3.8% to 4.8%. Slowness in the economy traced ...

Europe’s debt crisis is sending a gloomy note to the rest of the world, not only because of possible contagion effects but more so real economy impacts. But Philippine monetary authorities have not (yet) followed other economies in the region in easing policy. Instead, the President has unveiled a fiscal ...

The global outlook has become infinitely gloomier over the past couple of months, with the euro zone in a sovereign debt crisis and the US in what could be another recessionary environment. This puts a heavy cloud over the Philippine economy, whose fortunes are still in some ways tied to these countries,