Foreign direct investments in the Philippines
NET foreign direct investments (FDI) to the Philippines were nearly halved in June as investors waited on the sidelines for a change in the country’s leadership, according to latest data the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) released yesterday that still showed last semester’s net inflows doubling from a year ago on April’s record level. Read the full story.
Philippine trade, factory output year-on-year performance
INCREASED infrastructure spending planned by the Duterte administration should support import growth this year despite July’s drop, analysts at Nomura Global Research said in a report. Read the full story.
Comparative wages in select Asian countries
BUSINESS LEADERS and a central bank official cautioned the Executive branch on its plan to replace the existing region-based minimum wage system with one that sets a nationwide floor pay for private sector workers, saying the latter risks making the country unattractive to investors and spiking inflation beyond target besides — eventually defeating the government’s goal of spreading development from key urban hubs like Metro Manila. Read the full story.
2016 global economic crime survey
COMPANIES in the Philippines have among the lowest confidence in the ability of law enforcers to combat economic crime, placing fourth in a list of 115 economies that say local enforcement agencies are “not adequately resourced” to do so, a survey suggests. Read the full story.
Adult joblessness rate
THE RANKS of jobless Filipinos thinned marginally last quarter, a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed, with one analyst saying this was due to hiring linked to the May 9 national elections. Read the full story.
When hunger strikes
By Nickky Faustine P. de Guzman, Reporter
It’s part of our culture to tidy things up when a visitor is expected. When foreign leaders and delegates came to the country last November for the Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the government put its best foot forward and tried to hide our blemishes from the world: walls covered the squatter areas that surround the airports and reports said some 20,000 homeless people were removed from the streets and hidden from sight. But it’s time to finally look at our own backyard because there are issues that high walls cannot conceal: hunger and poverty and the resulting malnutrition are hurting our economy.
‘Instagramable’ parties
By Zsarlene B. Chua, Reporter
PARTIES — OF ALL SORTS — can now ascend to whole new “Instagram-able” levels as London-based party supplies and stationery company, Meri Meri, has come to the Philippines by way of National Bookstore.
Changing the local PT game
By Michael Angelo S. Murillo
SEEING how physical therapy has not been developed as a specialized practice here, a Filipino doctor of PT has returned to the country with the end game of changing how what he does is perceived and appreciated locally.
Traveling for the music
By Cathy Rose A. Garcia, Associate Editor
Summer isn’t the best time to go to Japan — it’s hot, humid, and did I mention, scorching hot?