A SCENE FROM Beyonce and Jay-Z’s “APES**T” music video.
PARIS — A music video by Beyonce and Jay-Z set in the Louvre helped boost visitor numbers to a record 10.2 million last year, the most for any museum in history, the Louvre said on Thursday.
A rebound in tourist numbers to Paris, following a drop after Islamist militants killed 130 people in the French capital in November 2015, also helped the museum achieve a 25% increase in visitors on the previous year.
The Louvre said it was happy at the response to the video by Beyonce and her husband Jay-Z for the song “APES**T” in which they perform in front of the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo and other famous artworks. It has been viewed nearly 150 million times on YouTube.
“It is good to see that these American artists, creators of today, are interested in a museum of archaeology and ancient art,” Louvre Director Jean-Luc Martinez told Reuters.
The Louvre’s previous record was 9.7 million visitors, in 2012, when the museum inaugurated its Islamic Art section and held exhibitions on Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael.
Three-quarters of the visitors are foreigners, with about 1.5 million American and 1 million Chinese tourists.
Indicating that the sometimes violent “yellow vest” protests in the final weeks of last year had not damaged tourism, the French Center for National Monuments also reported record 2018 numbers, with 10.2 million visitors, up 8%, to the 100 sites it manages. The previous record was in 2014.
The Arc de Triomphe, despite being closed for two weeks last month after being defaced by yellow vest protests against government reforms, was France’s most popular monument in 2018, with 1.7 million visitors, followed by the Mont-Saint-Michel island in Normandy, with 1.4 million.
Full-year tourist numbers for the Paris region are not yet available, but in the first half of 2018 it booked a record number of 17.1 million arrivals and said it was hoping for a full-year record of 50 million. — Reuters
FOR THE Federal Reserve, 2019 has started out looking a lot like 2016: the last time uncertainty over global growth roiled financial markets for months on end.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell pointed to the 2016 episode Friday to underscore the US central bank’s ability to be flexible when necessary, recalling the Fed held interest rates steady almost all year. But while officials still have the option to press pause on their campaign of gradual rate hikes again, it may not have such a calming influence this time around.
At the outset of 2016, policy makers were projecting four quarter-point rate increases for the year. Sliding stock markets knocked them off track and they ended up staying on hold until making a single move in December.
Amid the turmoil, investors anticipated Fed officials would blink, which pushed down longer-term interest rates. That in turn helped offset some of the tightening of financial conditions. In March 2016, then-Fed Chair Janet Yellen referred to this effect as an “automatic stabilizer” for the US economy. It helped. The economy weathered the market turmoil and the US expansion ground on to become the second-longest on record. RATE FORECASTS
Fast-forward to now and US central bankers don’t have the luxury of relying on that automatic stabilizer. Fed officials entered this year projecting two rate increases, but investors currently anticipate a rate cut this year has become more likely than a hike.
That leaves the Fed in a tough spot because central bankers aren’t inclined to cut rates at the moment, and the rest of the government isn’t offering any help to support investor sentiment, said Ethan Harris, co-head of global economics research at Bank of America in New York. Congress has fallen back into gridlock, and President Donald Trump’s trade war with China is increasing uncertainty.
“All of the pressure is on the Fed: they are the ones that have to say the right thing to keep markets comfortable,” Harris said. “Powell talked about the baseline for the economy and downplayed the risks. That, I think, scared the markets,” he said, referring to the Fed chairman’s Dec. 19 press conference, which sent stocks tumbling further. S&P, OIL
The S&P 500 index has fallen almost 13% since September amid a more than 30% drop in oil prices. Ongoing trade tensions and a homegrown slowdown in China’s economy have combined to fan fears among investors about the outlook for global growth, just like 2016.
“With the muted inflation readings that we’ve seen coming in, we will be patient as we watch to see how the economy evolves, but we’re always prepared to shift the stance of policy and to shift it significantly if necessary,” Powell said Friday in Atlanta. “I’d actually like to point to a recent example when the committee did just that, in early 2016.”
At the end of 2015, investors had priced 60 basis points over the coming year. That fell to zero during the following six months as the Fed cut its forecast, helping offset the effect of tighter financial conditions.
This time around, prices of interest-rate swaps signal investors see rates easing by 10 basis points over the next 12 months, meaning the Fed would probably actually have to cut rates to offset tighter financial conditions.
That’s something they are unlikely to do unless they’re convinced a recession is right around the corner, according to Michael Hanson, chief US macro strategist at TD Securities in New York.
Powell certainly gave no such hint of a rate cut Friday. He said economic data remained solid and pointed to the December jobs report, released earlier that day, which was strong across the board with unemployment of 3.9% still near a 50-year low.
That said, other economic indicators have softened. A monthly gauge of sentiment in the manufacturing sector, which is more forward-looking than the employment report, plunged in December, according to data published on Jan. 3 by the Institute for Supply Management. But even after the drop, the gauge remains at levels consistent with strong economic growth, as Powell pointed out.
Fed officials are unlikely to be as cautious in 2019 as they were in 2016 because interest rates are quite a bit higher now — which means they have more room to ease if they make a mistake by over-tightening than they would have had then — and because the unemployment rate is still below levels they bet are sustainable, Hanson said.
“They still believe that the danger is more to be under-reactive than over-reactive to the tight labor market,” he said. “The Fed isn’t saying it’s going to cut rates. The Fed isn’t even saying it’s going to pause.” — Bloomberg
SUN LIFE Financial Philippine Holding Co. Chair Rizalina G. Mantaring has assumed the presidency of the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) for 2019.
MAP said Ms. Mantaring is the organization’s 70th president and the fourth female president since it was established in 1950.
This year, Ms. Mantaring leads the MAP along with Francis Ed. Lim, senior partner of ACCRALAW, as vice-president; Benedicta Du-Baladad, managing partner and CEO of Du-Baladad and Associates, as treasurer; Cesar G. Romero, country chair of Shell Companies in the Philippines, as assistant treasurer; and Carol V. Dominguez, president and CEO of John Clements Consultants, as secretary.
Other MAP board members include AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp. President and CEO Jose Rene D. Almendras; Ayala Corporation Managing Director John Philip S. Orbeta; UnionBank of the Philippines CEO and Chair Justo A. Ortiz; and Philippine Airlines Director and former Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Amando M. Tetangco, Jr.
Ms. Mantaring is also a director at Sun Life Grepa Financial, and the chair of Sun Life Foundation.
She joined Sun Life in 1992 as senior manager and head for Asia Pacific of the then — Nascent Information Systems Department. She later became Sun Life chief operations officer for Asia in 2008, deputy president for Sun Life Philippines in March 2009, then CEO and country head from August 2009 to June 2018.
Ms. Mantaring received the Asia Talent Management award at CNBC’s 2017 Asia Business Leader Awards and the CEO Excel Award from the International Association of Business Communicators-Philippines.
AN ART dealer with clients including billionaires Leon Black and Ronald Lauder is selling 10 works from his private collection that could set individual auction records for some of the masters who created them.
Richard L. Feigen, 88, who sold paintings to moguls and museums over six decades, is offering the works through Christie’s to raise money for retirement, he said in an interview. They span four centuries and include a two-sided John Constable landscape and Saint Sixtus, a rare, gold-ground Fra Angelico.
At least five will be offered at auction on May 2 in New York, Christie’s said in a statement Friday. Others are being sold privately, Mr. Feigen said. Some of them spent years hanging in his living room.
Mr. Feigen, who founded his gallery in the 1950s after graduating from Harvard Business School, has sold paintings to major museums including the Louvre and the National Gallery of Art in Washington. In 2016, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles paid $30.5 million for Orazio Gentileschi’s Danae and the Shower of Gold after Mr. Feigen’s family trust loaned it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The upcoming sales aren’t expected to fetch quite that much, but they could establish records for some of the artists. For example, Virgin and Child with Saint Lucy and the Young Saint John the Baptist by Italian Baroque painter Annibale Carracci is estimated at about $4 million. His current auction high is $3.4 million, according to Artnet.
Lorenzo Monaco’s round painting on gold ground, The Prophet Isaiah, is estimated at $1.5 million to $2.5 million. The work, which Mr. Feigen bought at Sotheby’s three decades ago for $275,000, was originally part of the altarpiece that’s now at the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence. The current auction record for the artist is $1.9 million from 2004.
A tiny two-sided work by Constable, depicting a landscape on one side and a cow on the other, is estimated at $800,000 to $1.2 million. Mr. Feigen bought it at auction for about $377,000 in 1999.
The only known still life by Guercino, Vanitas Still Life, depicting a skull, is estimated at about $3 million.
“It’s one of my favorite pictures,” Mr. Feigen said. — Bloomberg
RIZAL COMMERCIAL BANKING CORP. is tapping its medium-term note program.
RIZAL COMMERCIAL Banking Corp. (RCBC) is set to raise fresh capital through a drawdown from its $2-billion medium-term note (MTN) program
In a disclosure to the local bourse on Tuesday, the Yuchengco-led RCBC said it intends to raise fresh funds from benchmark-sized dollar-denominated senior unsecured fixed-rate notes through a drawdown from its $2-billion MTN program.
The bank has yet to provide further details regarding the drawdown, as it has “prepared a note offering circular for this purpose” which will be posted in the Singapore Stock Exchange.
RCBC tapped Citigroup, Standard Chartered Bank as well as UBS to serve as the joint bookrunners of the MTN drawdown.
In March 2018, RCBC raised $300 million by selling five-year senior unsecured fixed-rate notes, which carry a rate of 4.125% per annum.
The bank conducted the fund-raising activity after it upsized its MTN program to $2 billion from the previous $1 billion, as approved by its board on Jan. 29.
In October 2015, RCBC raised $320 million from the issuance of unsecured fixed-rate notes as part of its $1-billion medium-term program.
The upcoming drawdown is the latest in a series of fundraising activities by RCBC.
Last September, the lender raised P3.58 billion from the first tranche of its P20-billion long-term negotiable certificates of deposit program, which will be used to provide long-term funding base.
It also raised P15 billion via stock rights offer in June to strengthen its capital ratio and fund its business expansion.
RCBC posted a P3.2-billion net profit in the first nine months, down 5.9% from a year earlier. The country’s 10th biggest bank runs 509 branches and 1,593 automated teller machines nationwide as of end-September.
Shares in RCBC stood at P29 apiece on Tuesday, down 40 centavos or 1.36% from the previous session. — K.A.N. Vidal
SILVERLENS welcomes the new year with the show A Paradise Lost, Ryan Villamael’s 7th solo exhibition in the gallery. The exhibit will open on Jan. 12, 6-9 p.m. According to the gallery, Mr. Villamael will be premiering “a new body of work that builds upon his ongoing dialogue with the contentious subject of Philippine History.” The artist’s interest in Philippine history “began when he came across some early maps where the idea of ‘The Philippines’ first started to appear, which at that period could be seen as just a random scattering of nearby islands, with various tribes… that were forced into a single, unified entity by an external power. This set forth more than three centuries of foreign rule that effectively dissolved all but a few links to our pre-colonial.” “This fraught relationship with history” led him to look deeper and “from there begin to piece together a picture that may shed light to how we, as people, ended up where we are today.” Opening concurrently with A Paradise Lost is Watchfire, a group exhibit featuring five artists who have made critical contributions to the development of contemporary ceramics in Asia: Tessy Pettyjohn, Jon Pettyjohn, and Joey de Castro of the Philippines; Shozo Michikawa of Japan; and Alvin Tan Teck Heng of Singapore. The exhibit is curated by Tropical Blaze and Boxplot. For the exhibit, the artists were invited to participate in an anagama wood firing at the studio of fellow ceramic artist Pablo Capati III. Each contributed to the kiln a number of works that had been formed and biscuit fired in their individual studios. The works from this collective endeavor form the exhibition Watchfire, alongside a small number of works from the artists’ studios. A Paradise Lost and Watchfire will be on view from Jan. 12 to Feb. 9 at Silverlens, 2263 Don Chino Roces Ave. Ext., Makati City.
Pianist Hiyas Hila and the PPO in concert
PIANIST Hiyas Hila
THE Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO) under the baton of Maestro Yoshikazu Fukumura greets the New Year with the 6th show of its current concert season, this time featuring pianist Hiyas A. Hila as soloist, on Jan. 18, 8 p.m., at the Main Theater of the Cultural Center of the Philippines. The program consists of Wagner’s Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg; Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54 and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op.92. Ms. Hila returns to play with the PPO after her critically acclaimed debut performance as soloist in an all-Mozart concert of the PPO conducted by Mr. Fukumura in 2017. She performs regularly as a solo, orchestral and chamber music artist and has been featured in concerts in the United States, Spain, and the Philippines. Her orchestral appearances include performances with the Manila Symphony Orchestra, the University of Minnesota Symphony Orchestra, and the Metro Manila Concert Orchestra. Tickets to the concert range in price from P400 to P1,500. For inquiries and reservations, call the CCP Box Office (832-3704), TicketWorld (891-9999) or visit www.culturalcenter.gov.ph.
Leòn Exchange holds 10th online auction
LEÒN EXCHANGE will hold its 10th online auction on Jan. 19 and 20. The auction items can be viewed and bid on through one’s mobile phone, tablet, or laptop. Going under the virtual hammer will be household goods from the home of Anton Roxas, including sofas, chairs, ottomans, and tea tables; and some furniture and accessories from style maven and philanthropist Presy Lopez-Psinakis, including an assortment of cabinets and ceramics. There are also assorted furniture pieces from different sources including Chinese coromandels, sets of Celadon planters, a European chest of drawers, Puyat-style dining table including 14 dining chairs, a carved four-poster bed, and Empire-style double aparador, a Laguna comoda, pair of Brentwood chairs and marble-top table, a Hagabi bench, and much more. There will also be artworks by Filipino masters including Federico Aguilar Alcuaz’s Manila Bay Series (1988), Cesar Buenaventura’s Vendors (1980), Romeo Tabuena’s Barrio Scene, Federico Aguilar Alcuaz’s Portrait of a Lady, Juvenal Sanso’s Landscape, and three “Untitled” Mauro “Malang” Santos paintings from the early 1980s. Contemporary works include Jigger Cruz’s “Untitled” work in oil and dated 2009, Emmanuel Garibay’s “Untitled” work, Marcel Antonio’s Girl with Doll, and Joan Miro’s Picasso y el Reventos. To join the auction go to www.leonexchange.com and register as a buyer. Previews for the lots begin on Jan. 14, at Leon Gallery in Warehouse 14 La Fuerza Plaza, 2241 Chino Roces Ave., Makati City.
THE Senate will seek to ratify the P3.757 trillion national budget for 2019 within two weeks after resuming session next week after Malacañang called on Congress to pass the measure “at the soonest possible time.”
In a mobile phone message to reporters on Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel F. Zubiri said a meeting among the senators will determine the timetable for the national budget’s third-reading approval in the Senate.
“We have a meeting with all the members of the Senate to discuss the approval of the budget. It is only then can we ascertain the dates of its approval. But definitely we will try to finish it as ratified in two weeks,” he said.
Senate President Vicente C. Sotto said the target is to pass the budget by the end of January.
“We concur with Malacañang’s call. Except the House transmitted the GAB to us one month late. The Senate is doing it best considering the predicament they painted us in,” he said in a mobile phone message
Presidential spokesperson Salvador S. Panelo warned Congress on Monday that further delays in passing the national budget will affect the release of funds for the salary increases of soldiers, policemen, teachers, and civilian employees of government.
He also urged Congress to set aside “partisan considerations” and to focus its attention on the general appropriations bill (GAB), or the national budget.
Congress adjourned on Dec. 13 with the national budget still awaiting second reading approval. Senators have cited the delayed transmittal by the House of Representatives of the GAB as the reason for the delayed passage.
Failure to pass the bill before the end of 2018 resulted in a reenacted budget in 2019, which the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has warned that it may lead to delays in the government’s implementation of new public works project.
Senator Panfilo M. Lacson, one of the vice chairs of the Senate committee on finance, pointed out a reenacted budget was the better option compared to a national budget filled with the so-called “pork.”
He added the Senate was not “playing partisan politics,” but rather it was closely examining the national budget to get rid of “unreasonable appropriations.”
“A pork-laden budget is far worse than a delayed or re-enacted one. Scrutinizing the national budget to get rid of excessive, unconscionable, unreasonable and irregular appropriations is not playing partisan politics,” he said.
“The national budget is the lifeblood of the country. Therefore, we must see to it that we do our role in making sure it serves its purpose and not just stuff the pockets of some insatiably greedy politicians,” he added.
Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon said the salary increase of government workers should not be used as a “bargaining chip” to put pressure on Congress to rush the approval of the 2019 national budget.
He added that the salary increase could still go ahead despite a reenacted budget since the resolution signed by then President Benigno S. Aquino III specifically stated that the salary increase should be implemented in four tranches up to 2019.
“Given the controversies surrounding the proposed 2019 budget, it behooves us in the Senate to really dig deeper and scrutinize each and every item in the budget,” he said in a statement issued on Tuesday.
Congress is set to resume session next week on Jan. 14, Monday. — Camille A. Aguinaldo
MALACAÑANG on Tuesday said President Rodrigo R. Duterte approved a proposal of the Department of Health (DoH) and the Department of Finance (DoF) to impose a P60 tax per pack of tobacco and P40 per liter of alcohol.
“The recommendation of the Department of Finance and [the Department of Health] is that this bill should be certified as urgent,” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador S. Panelo said in a briefing, referring to Senator Emmanuel D. Pacquiao’s Senate Bill No. 1599 that proposes to increase the cigarette tax to P60 per pack.
On alcohol, Mr. Panelo said the DoH and the DoF proposed to raise the tax to P40 per liter.
In a statement, Mr. Panelo said: “This is a key public health measure to reduce deaths and disabilities due to tobacco and alcohol consumption and, at the same time, a revenue measure to fund the universal health care program.”
The Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law increased the excise tax on tobacco to P32.50 from P30 in January last year.
Senate Bill No. 1599, which Mr. Pacquiao filed in October 2017, is still pending with the Committee on Ways and Means.
Senator Joseph Victor G. Ejercito, chair of the Senate committee on health, filed a similar bill that sets the tax rate for cigarettes at P90 per pack.
The House of Representatives approved on third and final reading in December proposed measures increasing the excise tax on alcohol and tobacco products.
House Bill No. 8677 proposes to increase the excise tax on cigarettes by P2.50 annually until it reaches P45 per pack in 2022, and by 4% annually thereafter.
The bill states that the excise tax on cigarettes will be raised to P37.50 from P35 in July 2019; P40 in July 2022; P42.50 in July 2021; and P45 in July 2022.
On alcohol products, House Bill No. 8618 proposes to raise the excise tax on distilled spirits to 22% from 20% ad valorem tax on the net retail price (NRP) per proof and a specific tax rate of P30 per liter from P23.40 in 2019, which will then be increased by P5 every year until it reaches P45 in 2022. Beginning 2023, the tax rate will increase by 7% annually. — Arjay L. Balinbin
THE Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Foundation, Inc. (SEIPI) said it is confident it will hit its 2018 growth target for electronics shipments.
“I believe we’ll hit our forecast,” SEIPI President Danilo C. Lachica said in a mobile message on Monday.
Latest data from the Philippines Statistics Authority (PSA) show that electronic exports in the 10 months to October period grew 5.20% year-on-year, which is below the 6% growth target.
The 2018 target was considered conservative after shipments grew 11% in 2017 to $32.7 billion.
SEIPI had expressed concern last year over the trade tensions then between the United States and China — two major destinations for the country’s electronics shipments.
To push exports, the group last year partnered with Angers French Tech, a community of French start-ups, to take advantage of opportunities in France, which is touted as a fast-growing export destination.
The partnership, sealed under a memorandum of understanding, will also result in the establishment of a French Pavilion in the Philippine Semiconductor and Electronics Convention and Exhibition this year.
The group also rolled out last year its Product and Technology Holistic Strategy (PATHS) and road map which identified the top products and technologies that the industry will focus on in the next five years to attain its goals.
PATHS’ implementation is expected to boost industry investment to $1.5 billion in 2020, $3 billion in 2025 and $5 billion in 2030, as well as increase export sales to $40 billion in 2025 and $50 billion in 2030.
Official PSA export statistics are due for release in February. — Janina C. Lim
