THE PHILIPPINES is not likely to be negatively affected in the short to medium term by a possible economic slowdown resulting from the ongoing trade tensions between the US and China due to it solid fundamentals, though it may be affected by contagion from emerging markets, analysts said.

THE GOVERNMENT will immediately pursue amendments to current laws to further open them up to foreign participation after “marginal improvements” were realized in the latest Foreign Investment Negative List (FINL).

RISING CREDIT was behind a recent increase in investment, the Department of Finance (DoF) said, by way of disputing the Philippines’ decline in ranking on the World Bank’s ease of doing business list due to weak scores in access to credit.

THE government should consider reducing its planned spending as another route to temper inflation, ANZ Research said, as softer domestic demand could ease price pressures.

REGULATED barter between southwestern Mindanao and neighboring countries is expected to get rolling by next year with the state government of Sabah in Malaysia ready to open its borders to the trade by January, according to an official of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA).

THE Department of Health (DoH) on Monday said it is seeking higher tobacco taxes to increase funding of the Universal Health Care (UHC) bill, which will cost around P257 billion in the first year of implementation.

A BILL granting tax relief to businesses and monthly cash assistance to residents affected by continuing restrictions on business in Boracay island has been filed at the House of Representatives.

Taxpayers have checked the most talked-about list in the Philippine taxation scene today, and have noted whether they have been included, retained, or delisted therefrom. Taxpayers who were recently included in the list may have marked their calendars too, in order not to miss the commencement of their new obligation. Needless to say, the list being referred to is the list of top withholding agents (TWAs) who are obliged to withhold on their purchases of goods and services beginning November 1, 2018. For the new ones on the list, be forewarned that the resolve to withhold tax on purchases of goods and services is often easier said than done. Being aware of the responsibility is just the tip of the iceberg. More challenges are attached to your responsibility to withhold.

THE government said it expects a more positive assessment in the European Union’s (EU) next report on the Philippines’ implementation of 27 international conventions that will help determine continued participation in the bloc’s preferential trade arrangements.

PHILIPPINE Ambassador to the UK Antonio M. Lagdameo said British firms “cannot ignore” Southeast Asia’s big plans for infrastructure, and welcomed in particular UK expertise in the transportation industry for the Philippines.

SUBSIDIES REMITTED by the national government to state-run firms surged in September, going largely to health care, banking, and irrigation arms of the government.

THE National Food Authority (NFA) should not have regulatory powers and be reduced to a logistics agency instead, its former administrator said.