THE PESO closed stronger Friday amid perceptions China has taken effective measures to contain the coronavirus outbreak.

LOCAL shares slipped further on Friday to its lowest in 14 months as the novel coronavirus rapidly spreads prompting the World Health Organization to declare the outbreak as a global health emergency.

INFRASTRUCTURE spending would probably recover this year with a national budget already in place, after lagging in the 11 months through November, the Budget department said on Thursday.

THE CENTRAL BANK is still looking to cut rates by at least 50 basis points (bps) this year, its chief said on Thursday.

THE NOVEL CORONAVIRUS (2019-nCoV) outbreak is likely to have a short-term impact on the country’s tourism sector, according to economic managers.

ENGLISH soprano Sarah Brightman’s HYMN in Concert tour will make a stop in the Philippines on June 10 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. This marks Ms. Brightman’s first visit to the country after more than 15 years.

THE Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) is renewing its recommendation to amend the law that limits foreign equity in public services.

THE MUCH-AWARDED documentary The Kingmaker, by Lauren Greenfield, opens with the octogenarian Imelda Romualdez Marcos handing out crisp 20 peso bills to the clamorous rabble, through the purposely open window of her van. It was 2014, and Mrs. Marcos was in her latest political incarnation as the representative of Ilocos Norte-Congressional District 2. (When she turned 90 last year, her nephew Angel Barba, the son of President Ferdinand Marcos’ youngest sister Fortuna Marcos Barba, took over this seat.) But even then, the groundwork was being laid for the ascendancy of her only son, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr.

MAYNILAD Water Services, Inc. has chosen a consortium led by a unit of DMCI Holdings, Inc. to build a 150-million-liters-per-day (MLD) plant that will treat water from Laguna Lake, a company related to the water concessionaire said.

ACCESS to decent work is deteriorating because employers keep offering inappropriate wages or demand long hours, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said.

A GRIM DECADE, grimmer now in its passing. Not a lot of comedies on my list, and what laughter there is often dies strangled in the throat.

LYFT INC. said on Wednesday it had cut about 2% of its workforce, or 90 jobs, as the ride-hailing company seeks to achieve its goal of profitability by the end of 2021.