LEDAC to start quarterly meetings
THE LEGISLATIVE-EXECUTIVE Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) will hold quarterly meetings to ensure smooth action on priority measures, Senate leaders said after the body’s organizational meeting on Monday.
Duterte names acting heads of agriculture and budget departments
PRESIDENT Rodrigo R. Duterte has appointed acting secretaries to head the agriculture and budget departments, Malacañang said on Monday.
House eyes Oct. 4 OK of national budget
THE HOUSE of Representatives targets final approval of the proposed P4.1-trillion 2020 national budget by Oct. 4, before the 18th Congress takes a month-long break, according to a senior official of the chamber’s Appropriations committee.
Analysts, exporters watch peso fortunes
THE PESO has turned out to be one of Asia’s stronger, less volatile currencies, the Department of Finance (DoF) said in an economic bulletin on Monday, even as economists say fortunes could change towards yearend and an exporters’ group remained cautious.
Policy rate cut seen as inflation slows
INFLATION likely slowed further in July as food prices sustained a decline, analysts said in a poll, adding that this would give space for the central bank to resume trimming benchmark interest rates after “a prudent pause” in its June 20 policy review.
GDP impact of budget delay carried over to second quarter — poll
ECONOMISTS expect gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the second quarter to have picked up from the first-quarter expansion, driven primarily by stronger household spending amid slower inflation, but weighed down by residual impact of delayed enactment of the 2019 national budget that was signed in mid-April.
Q2 farm output expected to have continued near-flat performance
PRODUCTION of the agriculture sector can be expected to have been “slightly positive” at best in the second quarter of 2019, two economists said late last week, citing particularly the impact of subdued rice output that has the biggest contribution to farm performance.
TransCo seeks smaller feed-in tariff rate for 2020
STATE-LED National Transmission Corp. (TransCo) is asking the energy regulator for provisional authority to implement starting January a feed-in tariff allowance (FiT-All) rate of P0.2278 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for 2020 ahead of the hearing on the merits of its application.
PHL raises 92 billion yen from samurai bonds
THE Philippines raised ¥92 billion ($860 million or P44.3 billion) from the sale of ”samurai” bonds across four tenors, amid strong demand from investors.
PHL factory gain strongest in 6 months
BUSINESS for manufacturers marked July with the strongest improvement in six months -- though still described as “moderate” -- on the back of sales and job growth, according to results of the latest survey IHS Markit conducted for Nikkei, Inc., keeping the country in third place behind Myanmar and Vietnam among seven tracked Southeast Asian economies.
Manufacturing pain spreads through Asia; more stimulus seen
HONG KONG -- Asian factory activity contracted further in July, fueling worries that a Sino-US trade war and a slowdown in China could tilt the world towards a global recession, which central banks will have to fight with depleted ammunition.
Competition body speeds up PPP project checks
THE PHILIPPINE Competition Commission (PCC) has streamlined merger rules for solicited projects under public-private partnership (PPP), which is one of the financing modes for major infrastructure development.