THE TRADE FAIR and jewelry expo are now open at the Compostela Valley capitol complex as part of the province’s 20th founding anniversary and 11th Bulawan Festival this month.
Among the goods on feature are cacao products, a growing sector in the province where there is a popular legend about Maria Cacao, and gold and silver jewelry made by local artisans from minerals harvested in the rich grounds of Mt. Diwalwal, also known as Mt. Diwata.
By Camille A. Aguinaldo
THE Senate on Monday concurred in the ratification of the free trade agreement (FTA) between the Philippines and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) states.
Senate Resolution No. 647, which called for the Senate’s concurrence in the agreement, was approved with 19 affirmative votes, zero negative vote and no abstention.
Senator Loren B. Legarda, who heads the Senate committee on foreign affairs, said the agreement was part of the country’s goal of a stronger foothold in the European market.
“Considering that EFTA requires the same standards as the EU, this will allow PH exporters to Europe to gain from economies of scale through improved market access in both EU and EFTA,” she said in a statement.
The EFTA member states included the Republic of Iceland, Principality of Liechtenstein, Kingdom of Norway and the Swiss Confederation.
Ratified by President Rodrigo R. Duterte last Dec. 8, the agreement allows for a secure market access for Philippine agriculture exports beyond EFTA commitments in its existing FTAs.
The Philippines also provided EFTA zero tariffs on almost all industrial and fishery products, with transitional period for select tariff lines.
The FTA also covers trade in services, investment competition, intellectual property rights, government procurement as well as trade and sustainable development.
On the part of the Philippines, market access commitments were undertaken where additional investments and technical expertise are deemed beneficial to the country, such as renewable energy, information technology and business process management, construction as well as maritime transport.
The agreement could also attract investments in the services and non-services sectors, spur domestic competition with the view to make the country EFTA’s hub in Southeast Asia as well as obtain market access for trade in services.
Ms. Legarda said the FTA would also enable the Philippines to significantly improve its market share compared with other member-states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the EFTA market.
She added that opening markets through agreements such as the PH-EFTA FTA was in line with the government’s economic reforms and ease of doing business initiatives.
News stories from across the nation. Visit www.bworldonline.com (section: The Nation) to read more national and regional news from the Philippines.
By Arra B. Francia, Reporter
SHARES started the week on a negative note, as the main index digested the impacts of interest rate hikes and higher inflation in the long term.
The 30-member Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) shed 0.85% or 72.40 points to close at 8,386.17 on Monday.
The broader all-shares index also dipped 0.42% or 21.45 points to 5,043.89.
“The market today still continue its consolidation…(now the news that are coming in are) interest rates being adjusted for the US and the Philippines also. And how to address the inflation. But overall I feel that the economic condition of the country will be okay,” Summit Securities, Inc. President Harry G. Liu said in a phone interview on Monday.
Investors have been staying on the sidelines due to fears of higher inflation, which the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas predicts to have come in at 4-4.8% last February. Mr. Liu, however, said the country’s long-term prospects remain positive.
“There will be an effect, that’s why the peso is affected for the meantime. But latter part, the foreign investments, economic programs keep on coming in, there will be a lot of spending. So this will help pressure inflation from getting any further on the wrong side,” the analyst said.
IB Gimenez Securities, Inc. Joylin F. Telagen, meanwhile, attributed Monday’s decline to concerns on United States President Donald J. Trump’s announcement last week, where he said that he wants to impose a 25% tariff on imported steel and 10% tariff for aluminum.
“I think today’s sell-off was following global concern on the possible impact of American tariffs to the global economy,” Ms. Telagen said via text on Monday.
International markets ended mixed last Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) was down 0.29% or 70.92 points to 24,538.06. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite index defied the DJIA’s performance, climbing 0.51% to 2,691.25 and 1.08% to 7,257.87, respectively.
Back home, majority of sectoral indices moved to negative territory, with financials leading the losers with a 1.33% decline or 29.56 points to 2,185.87. Holding firms followed, giving up 1.31% or 111.53 points to 8,372.63; services was down 0.30% or 5.40 points to 1,739.74; while industrials dropped 0.20% or 23.42 points to 11,488.48.
On the other hand, the property sector climbed 0.61% or 22.93 points to 3,783.21, while mining and oil gained 0.18% or 21.48 points to 11,926.67.
Trading thinned on Monday, as 7.85 billion issues switched hands valued at P6.12 billion, lower than the P7.25-billion turnover recorded last Friday.
Advancers outpaced decliners, 117 to 100, while 41 names remained unchanged.
Foreign investors kept their selling position yesterday, posting net outflows of P290.15 million, although lower than Friday’s net sales of P619.93 million.
Inflation is getting a fresh look in Asia.
Nowhere is the global e-commerce wave having more of an impact right now than in Asia, where the region’s burgeoning middle class is embracing clicks over mortar and companies are scrambling to meet their demand via new ventures or acquisitions.
In the process, old methods of measuring prices based on the in-store cost of a basket of goods are rapidly becoming outmoded. To keep up, finance ministries, central banks and statistics agencies from Mumbai to Manila are dispatching an army of economists to refine how they measure inflation — one of the most important statistics that policymakers watch.
Here’s a snippet of what policy makers are doing:
South Korea’s statistics office has more than doubled the number of products it surveys online India is looking at ways to incorporate online sales into its inflation index Japan has set up a task force to bolster its data collection China is gauging e-commerce activity and meeting with executives to study the impact, as well as monitoring major e-commerce websites to track price changes Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore are studying internet pricing effects, while the Philippines central bank has hired more data scientists.
The depressive impact on prices as shoppers trawl for bargains online is all part of a larger puzzle that financial authorities worldwide are grappling with: why inflation has remained subdued despite the fastest and broadly synchronized run of economic growth since 2011.
“How to interpret this in monetary policy is an important issue,” Asian Development Bank President Takehiko Nakao said in an interview. “I am more concerned, or interested, in the evolution of e-commerce than AI and robots.”
E-commerce revenue is expected to hit $1.74 trillion this year across the Asia-Pacific region, about 18 percent of overall retail sales, according to eMarketer. Online purchases are projected to almost double to $3.3 trillion by 2021, bringing the share to 28 percent.
To tap that growth, hardly a week goes by without an e-commerce retailer announcing aggressive expansion plans in Asia, the world’s most economically dynamic region. EBay Inc., operator of the namesake online marketplace, is close to a deal for the Japanese assets of e-commerce site Qoo10, a person familiar with the matter said.
In China, online retailer JD.com Inc. has opened a high-tech supermarket in Beijing, the first of a planned chain. Tencent Holdings Ltd. plans to invest in French grocer Carrefour SA’s China unit; Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. bought a slice of China’s largest hypermart chain Sun Art Retail Group Ltd. to compete against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in a push to transform traditional grocery and department stores. And the list goes on in Australia, India and Japan.
“It’s a challenge to catch up with all the shifts happening in consumer spending,” said Taijiro Ako, the director of consumer statistics division at Japan’s Statistics Bureau of Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. “We are trying to improve our coverage of online shopping.”
To be sure, few suggest that online shopping will edge out commodities, food and weather as the dominant forces driving inflation. But the “ Amazon effect,” together with eye-popping e-commerce growth forecasts, have policy makers scrambling to understand what it’s doing to their economies.
“The issue I always ask myself: Do we really understand what inflation is today?” Min Zhu, a former top official at China’s central bank and the International Monetary Fund, said on a panel at Davos in January. “With technology, with e-commerce, with artificial intelligence, efficiency has increased dramatically and transaction costs have dropped dramatically. Competition through e-commerce platforms has dropped prices quickly.”
The e-commerce fever is felt among private-sector watchers, too.
Economists at Nomura Inc. named the “Amazonification of inflation” as one of its 10 “grey swans” for 2018. Analysts at Bain & Co. are watching how the shortening of shipping times, including through the likes of Amazon, also are depressing prices.
“What Amazon is enabling is this dispersion of retail to farther and farther areas,” said Karen Harris, New York-based managing director of Bain & Co’s Macro Trends group. “Delivery technology allows deflation to spread.”
Craig Swanger, a Sydney-based director and chief investment officer of financial services firm Revolver Capital, has ramped up his monitoring of the e-commerce effect over the last year. His “Amazon Inflation Index” shows the yawning gap between price growth for goods sold on the e-commerce giant and its peers in the U.S. versus items in the U.S. consumer price index that aren’t available online. It’s a trend he says will be increasingly replicated in Asia.
The upside potential for e-commerce in Asia — and the risk of lower inflation for longer — is great, he said. “I think we have an incredible way to go yet.” — Bloomberg
Investor nerves remained on show across global stock markets Monday amid continued fretting about the potential for a full-fledged trade war. The dollar strengthened against most major peers and Treasury yields dropped, while the euro weakened as Italy headed toward a hung parliament.
European shares eked out gains following four days of losses, but equity gauges from Tokyo to Sydney slumped during the Asian trading session. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index got a helping hand from the euro, which weakened as Italy’s anti-establishment political groups surged in Sunday’s election. Italian stocks and bonds both slid. Amid worries about the implications of U.S. tariffs for the world’s economy, Germany’s breakthrough toward agreeing on a government did little for the common currency. Shares in Shanghai bucked the regional declines as China kept its 2018 growth target of around 6.5 percent.
The Italian election result and Germany’s move toward a coalition kick off a busy week for macro events. Both the Bank of Japan and European Central Bank will meet to decide on interest rate policy, while China hosts its National People’s Congress. Overshadowing it all, however, will be the next developments on global trade after U.S. President Donald Trump riled markets with his proposed tariffs last week.
There’s a “lot of politics this week with Italy elections and NPC in China, also trade measures,” Frank Benzimra, head of Asia equity strategy at Societe Generale SA in Hong Kong, said. “The return of volatility we have seen since the end of January will probably remain.”
Elsewhere, oil climbed as geopolitical risk resurfaced, with a halt at Libya’s biggest crude field sparking speculation that supply will tighten and help reduce a global glut. Bitcoin advanced for a third day.
Here are some key events coming up this week:
The Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference runs through March 15 and overlaps with the National People’s Congress meetings in Beijing, through March 20. The Bank of Japan deputy governors’ confirmation hearings will be held Monday. Reserve Bank of Australia monetary policy decision on Tuesday, with GDP data due Wednesday. The ECB isn’t expected to change policy on Thursday, but the Governing Council may discuss a change to pave the way for the end of quantitative easing. BOJ monetary policy decision and briefing on Friday. U.S. monthly payrolls data.
These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed 0.3 percent as of 8:19 a.m. London time, the first advance in a week. The MSCI World Index of developed countries fell 0.1 percent on its fifth consecutive decline. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index sank 1 percent with its fifth straight decline. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average sank 0.7 percent to the lowest in more than 20 weeks. The MSCI Emerging Market Index fell 0.8 percent with its fifth consecutive decline. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index increased 0.4 percent, the first advance in a week. Futures on the S&P 500 Index declined 0.5 percent to the lowest in almost three weeks.
Currencies
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index increased 0.2 percent. The euro fell 0.1 percent to $1.2302. The British pound decreased 0.1 percent to $1.3783. The Japanese yen gained 0.2 percent to 105.49 per dollar, the strongest in about 16 months.
Bonds
The yield on 10-year Treasuries fell three basis points to 2.83 percent. Germany’s 10-year yield declined four basis points to 0.61 percent, the lowest in more than five weeks. Britain’s 10-year yield decreased three basis points to 1.474 percent, the lowest in more than five weeks.
Commodities
West Texas Intermediate crude increased 0.7 percent to $61.66 a barrel, the largest climb in more than a week. Gold advanced 0.3 percent to $1,326.94 an ounce, the highest in a week. — Bloomberg
Investors are worried that Donald Trump will derail world growth.
An announcement last week of tariffs on imported steel and aluminum triggered a slide in optimism among financial-market participants, according to Sentix, which said the reaction should be a “wake-up call for the U.S. president to reconsider the matter of protectionism.” Investor confidence in the euro-area economy slid to the lowest level in almost a year.
“Trump’s comments on punitive tariffs give investors a great deal of thought — an economic turnaround is in the air!” said Manfred Huebner, managing director at Sentix.
Governments around the world have condemned Trump’s plans and threatened retaliatory measures, while warning that trade wars rarely produce winners. The conflict comes at a crucial time for the world economy, which seems to be at a crossroads toward more moderate growth, with factories from China to the euro area seeing slower activity recently.
The European Central Bank holds a policy meeting on Thursday. While some officials have already argued in favor of advancing down the exit route, President Mario Draghi has pushed back.
“These new economic question marks reduce the pressure on the ECB to tighten its monetary policy reins — something that Mario Draghi does not favor at the moment anyway,” Huebner said. — Bloomberg
Oil rose after its steepest weekly loss in a month as Libya was said to halt production briefly at its biggest field.
Futures in New York climbed as much as 1.2 percent after a 3.6 percent decline last week. Production was said to have stopped at the Sharara field Sunday after a pipeline to the Zawiya refinery closed. Sharara has now begun pumping again, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The halt came shortly after protests disrupted output at another Libyan deposit in February.
Libyan production had been surging in recent months, becoming a thorn for the market on concern that further growth could test the country’s pledge to OPEC to help limit a global oversupply. The increase — together with rising U.S. output — has prevented prices from regaining the highs of January even as most OPEC members continue to curb production.
“Oil prices are on the rise this morning as news of supply disruptions in Libya emerged,” said Michael Poulsen, an analyst at Global Risk Management Ltd.
West Texas Intermediate for April delivery rose as much as 72 cents to $61.97 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange and traded at $61.68 as of 10 a.m. London time. Last week’s drop was the first weekly decline in three weeks. Total volume traded Monday was about 7 percent above the 100-day average.
Brent for May settlement advanced 34 cents to $64.71 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe Exchange. Front-month futures slipped 4.4 percent last week. The global benchmark traded at a $3.24 premium to May WTI.
Libyan oil production remains threatened by the lingering effects of civil strife that erupted earlier in the decade. Though output has risen, it’s still well below the 1.6 million barrels a day pumped before the ouster of former leader Muammar Qaddafi.
While investors focus on Libya, in the U.S., oil explorers boosted the number of rigs drilling for crude to 800 for the first time in almost three years, according to Baker Hughes data released Friday. Drillers have been accelerating exploration in an almost-unbroken streak since early November, vaulting American crude output to a record of more than 10 million barrels a day. — Bloomberg
By Michael Angelo S. Murillo
Senior Reporter
FOR the second straight time in the ongoing FIBA Asian World Cup Qualifiers, Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) rookie Kiefer Ravena was part of the Gilas Pilipinas team that saw action in the competition, something he said he is basking in not only for the chance to represent flag and country but to play alongside as well with some of the best players in the land.
Including Gilas’ last two games in Australia on Feb. 22 and in Manila three days later, Mr. Ravena, a freshman for the NLEX Road Warriors in the PBA, has suited for the first two windows of the World Cup Qualifiers, helping the team to a 3-1 record and a spot in the next round of the marquee basketball tournament.
While admitting he is still working his way to be of best service to the team, Mr. Ravena said he is getting used to playing on the “big stage” with the help of his more seasoned teammates and coaches.
“Well in terms of preparing for the big stage it helps that I get to train with practically the best players here in our country,” said the former King Ateneo Eagle, who is averaging 7.3 points, two rebounds and 3.3 assists in the qualifiers while playing primarily the point guard position.
“I credit as well the trust of the coaching staff which is big boost to my confidence as I figure things out. Preparation for me is trusting the system and working hard. And, of course, trusting yourself,” added Mr. Ravena.
In their last game against Japan, Mr. Ravena provided a much-needed jolt after Gilas had a slow start and was challenged to the end by the visitors before hacking out an 89-84 victory.
The Gilas guard finished with 13 points and five assists apart from providing a lot of energy to the team on both ends of the court.
Moving forward, Mr. Ravena said he will continue striving hard and remain ready if and when the national team calls him back.
Next for Mr. Ravena and Gilas is the third window of the qualifiers happening in June and July where they hope to continue winning and build a solid momentum heading into the next round of the tournament which will culminate in the FIBA World Cup in China in 2019.
GILAS UP IN THE RANKINGS
Meanwhile, Gilas Pilipinas saw its world ranking improve a notch after the second window of the FIBA Asian World Cup Qualifiers.
Ranked 31st in the previous FIBA release, Gilas moved to 30th place in the list that came out last week.
Compiling 254.8 points to date, the Philippines is the fourth-best team in Asia behind Australia (10th) at 459.9 points, Iran (24th) at 287.8 and China (28th) at 263.4.
The United States remains as the number one-ranked nation followed by Spain, France, Serbia and Argentina in the top five.
Rounding out the top 10 are Lithuania, Slovenia, Croatia, Greece and Australia.
LOS ANGELES — Victor Oladipo scored 33 points and Bojan Bogdanovic tallied 20 as the Indiana Pacers moved up the crowded Eastern Conference standings with a 98-95 win over the Washington Wizards on Sunday.
The Pacers won despite nearly blowing a 17 point lead but they held on and the victory allowed them to jump over the Wizards by a half-game in the NBA standings.
Myles Turner added 12 points and 13 rebounds for visiting Indiana, which finished its four-game road trip 2-2 after beginning it with two losses.
Cory Joseph did double duty, scoring 16 points and also defending the Wizards top scorer, Bradley Beal, who finished with 22 points.
In Toronto, DeMar DeRozan had a team-high 19 points as the Toronto Raptors defeated the Charlotte Hornets, 103-98, at Air Canada Centre.
DeRozan added eight assists and four rebounds while Jonas Valanciunas chipped in 18 points and 13 rebounds. C.J. Miles and Fred VanVleet came off the bench to each score 12 points.
Toronto improved to 45-17 on the season with the win. They have a two-game lead on Boston atop the Eastern Conference standings.
Kemba Walker had a game-high 27 points, six rebounds and four assists to lead the Hornets, who have now lost three straight.
Elsewhere, Taurean Prince rattled in the eventual game winning three pointer with seven seconds left as the Atlanta Hawks edged the Phoenix Suns, 113-112.
Prince drained a career high six three pointers and finished with 22 points for the Hawks who posted their 20th win of the season.
Prince’s clutch shot came off a perfect screen play by teammate Miles Plumlee.
Devin Booker’s potential winner for the Suns, a 15-foot shot from the right baseline, bounced off the rim as time expired.
“I got the shot I wanted,” Booker said. “I picked a point on the floor. I got to it. I just missed it.” — AFP
AS the lone Filipino participating in the Asia Talent Cup (ATC) kicking off later this month, Honda Philippines, Inc. racer Troy Alberto said there is a lot pressure going into it but that he is more proud and excited, knowing that he gets to represent the Philippines in the international race.
In formal send-off ceremonies held on Feb. 27, which coincided with the grand opening of the Honda Flagship Shop in Makati, superbike racer Alberto said he is ready to go and compete at the multi-round ATC which will begin on March 16.
“Of course there is a lot of pressure if you are the lone Filipino competing because basically all eyes are on you to be successful not only for yourself but the entire country. So definitely there is pressure but I’m looking at it as a challenge to push myself harder and succeed,” said Alberto in an interview with BusinessWorld.
In qualifying for the Idemitsu Asia Talent Cup, Alberto, now competing under the Honda banner, completed a series of tryouts in August 2017.
He went on test races last month in Malaysia all in the hopes of doing well in the six-round ATC, spread over several months and happening in various locations including Thailand, Japan and Qatar.
The 16-year-old Alberto is also set to compete in the Honda Thai Talent Cup, an international race in the Asian region that uses the Honda NSF250R, a bike made especially for racing. It begins in April.
Alberto and Honda said they hope that by competing in said international races it would set the stage for them competing in bigger events in the future, including the Motorcycle Grand Prix or MotoGP.
As part of his preparation, Alberto said he has been training with his older brother TJ, who is also an international racer, whose dynamic he described as “two-way” beneficial.
“I have been training with my brother who is also preparing for the Italian Championship and we have done a lot of training activities like cycling, swimming and gym work. And I would say it has been doing well,” he said.
Adding, “It helps a lot that I train with my brother. He is four years older than me and growing up he was always ahead of the curve and I always had to catch up with what he had learned. Now that we are a bit matured, we sort of leveled off and just feed off each other by giving feedbacks to improve our game. Both of us try to help each other. And I think it has shown results with me competing in ATC and him in the Italian Championship.”
He went on to say that he is excited for the motorcycle racing scene in the country continuing to grow and building on its gains in the last couple of years.
“Over the past few years the motorcycle community and racing here have grown a lot. We have a lot of racers participating in the local series here. Usually in a regular race we get hundreds of riders coming there to compete or watch. Also there have been Filipino riders who have been able to compete in international competitions. It’s definitely a growing sport and it will have a lot of potential for sure,” said Alberto, whose father Toti is also a multi-awarded superbike racer.
As for his newly forged partnership with Honda, Alberto said it has been going on smoothly and that he appreciates what the group is doing for him and in his preparation.
“It’s going full swing starting this year. I’m happy racing under Honda Philippines. They have been giving a lot of support. I’m very excited because it’s a new experience for me and has a lot to look forward to,” he said.
“I’m looking forward to succeeding this year along with Honda in the ATC and Thai Talent Cup and hopefully we get some good results, maybe a podium finish. And after that I look forward to bigger things like the World Championships. Our goal is to participate at the high level and this is just the start,” Alberto added. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo
YET to lose in group play of the AFC Cup, Ceres-Negros FC looks to maintain such as it takes on Shan United FC of Myanmar on Match Day 3 today at the Panaad Park and Football Stadium in Bacolod City.
At the top of the heap in Group F with a one-win and one-draw record and four points, tied with Singapore’s Home United FC (1-1-0), Ceres tries to pad its cause with a win and put itself in better position to advance to the knockout stage of the tournament.
The “Busmen” were able to hack out a 1-1 draw against Home United in an away match on Feb. 27 to remain undefeated. It was in follow-up to its 9-0 drubbing of Boeung Ket Angkor of Cambodia previously.
Super Herrera came to the rescue of Ceres last time around, scoring the equalizer at the 79th minute after his team surrendered a goal at the 23rd minute to Shahril Ishak.
Looking to stop Ceres, meanwhile, is Shan United (1-0-1), which is coming off a victory over Boeung Ket, 2-1.
Shan United used a spirited fight back and came from behind to notch its first win of the tournament.
It fell a goal down at the 28th minute after Maicon punched through for Boeung Ket.
Dway Ko Ko Chit leveled the count for Shan United at the 41st minute before Christopher Chizoba added another one which proved to be the marginal goal as they held on for the win.
The victory put Shan United in solo third place in Group F while keeping Boeung Ket (0-0-2) winless.
As per tournament format, in the group stage only the top team is assured of automatic qualification to the next round.
Kickoff for the Ceres-Shan United match is set for 7:30 p.m. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo
