Services

NEWS FLASH

UPCOMING WEBINAR - CAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA: ECONOMIC UPSWINGS AND POL...

Learn More

COUNTRY INSIGHTS

Stagflation risk
PHILIPPINES · In Brief · 28 Apr 2022

Even as the IMF warned of stagflation risk for Asia, economic managers are happily taking note of the multilateral agency’s rosier outlook for the Philippines. In its latest World Economic Outlook, the IMF nudged up its GDP forecast for country this year from 6.3% to 6.5%.Although the adjustment ...

Easter break
PHILIPPINES · In Brief · 13 Apr 2022

The Philippines will take its annual Lenten break beginning Thursday. We leave our readers with two thoughts on the economy’s short-term outlook. The latest official survey by Pulse Asia conducted in mid-March, which showed Vice President Leni Robredo’s voter share jumping 9ppt to 24%, has invigo...

March inflation jumps to 4%
PHILIPPINES · In Brief · 05 Apr 2022

The large upward adjustments last month in domestic pump prices pushed up the headline inflation rate to 4%, the upper end of the BSP inflation target, from only 3% in February. The headline rate reflects a month-on-month inflation rate of 0.6%, with may be traced almost entirely to increases in ...

Is it game over? (3)
PHILIPPINES · In Brief · 30 Mar 2022

Notwithstanding aerial photos in social media showing a sea of pink in Vice President Leni Robredo’s campaign rallies, pink being her signature color, surveys suggest that the impressive attendances are hardly making a dent on her poll numbers. The latest figures we’ve seen, done by The Laylo Rep...

Key reform opening up to FDI signed into law
PHILIPPINES · In Brief · 22 Mar 2022

Yesterday, President Rodrigo Duterte signed the last of three new laws liberalizing foreign entry into domestic industries. The latest, amending the 85-year old Public Service Act (PSA), is perhaps the most significant as it opens up vital infrastructure services including telecommunications, air...

The fallout from a faraway war
PHILIPPINES · In Brief · 10 Mar 2022

Below updates are intended to give readers a better sense of how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is affecting the local economy. Gas stations carried out this week their heftiest price increase so far this year, bringing gasoline prices about 20% above December 2021 levels. The upward adjustments wi...

February inflation at 3%
PHILIPPINES · In Brief · 04 Mar 2022

The Philippine Statistics Agency (PSA) reported today that the headline inflation rate averaged 3% in February, the midpoint of the BSP’s 2-4% inflation target.The relatively benign inflation outturn, despite the 13.5% yoy increase in electricity prices and 6% yoy rise in local fuel prices during...

Bracing for change, P.S.
PHILIPPINES · In Brief · 28 Feb 2022

When we issued our Forecast report on February 22, we had not expected that the risk we warned about that would be “disruptive to growth everywhere,” i.e., a war in Ukraine, would happen just two days later. The still unfolding event, with its immediate outsized impact on global commodity prices,...

Bracing for change
PHILIPPINES · Forecast · 22 Feb 2022

Several forthcoming changes cloud the outlook for 2022. The major change domestically is the midyear change in government that introduces some degree of policy uncertainty. The major change externally is the impending US Fed policy rate hike that raises risks for emerging markets, especially thos...

Is it game over? (2)
PHILIPPINES · In Brief · 17 Feb 2022

The latest nationwide survey from Pulse Asia, one of the two reputable pollsters in the country, continues to show that if elections were held today, Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. would win hands down.Conducted from January 19-24, the results show Mr. Marcos enjoying a 60% voter share, up from 53% in Dec...

An interview with the Central Bank Governor of the Year
PHILIPPINES · Report · 04 Feb 2022

In March 2019, faced with the untimely death of BSP Governor Nestor Espenilla, President Rodrigo Duterte made the surprise decision to move his budget secretary, Benjamin Diokno, to the BSP. At the time, we wrote: “The Secretary is well regarded as an academic and technocrat whose field of expert...

Inflation update: A new base year
PHILIPPINES · In Brief · 04 Feb 2022

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) released today its new 2018-based consumer price indices, showing a 3% headline inflation rate for January. Although the headline rate looks relatively benign, prices were sharply higher month-on-month, rising 1% between December and January. Most of the ...

4Q GDP rose 7.7%
PHILIPPINES · In Brief · 27 Jan 2022

As we expected, the Philippine economy left 2021 with a bang, growing 7.7% yoy in 4Q and sustaining a 3.1% seasonally-adjusted quarter-on-quarter growth. GDP growth was led by household consumption, with increased vaccination, fewer Covid-19 infections and easing of restrictions propelling a 7.5%...

Omicron watch (3)
PHILIPPINES · In Brief · 26 Jan 2022

Data tracking the latest Covid-19 wave in the country show that new infections have started to drop, particularly in Metro Manila. Samples sequenced by the Philippine Genome Center in January traced almost all the cases to the Omicron variant. Although infections may have peaked in the nation’s c...

More power supply worries
PHILIPPINES · In Brief · 18 Jan 2022

In a commentary last year on domestic inflation concerns,[1] we cited the sufficiency of electric power supply as one of the risks that have macro level implications.[2]Barely two weeks into the new year, we are seeing just how idiosyncratic the risks affecting this complex sector have become. As...

Copyright 2024 GlobalSource Partners. All rights reserved.