Philippine trade year-on-year performance

August 11, 2017 | 12:01 am

EXTERNAL TRADE in goods and manufacturing likely delivered a smaller contribution to economic growth in the second quarter compared with the first three months of the year, based on data released by the government yesterday. Read the full story.

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Banks borrow from rediscount facility in July

August 11, 2017 | 12:01 am

BANKS revisited the central bank’s rediscount facility in July after it was left untouched for two months, which came alongside adjustments to the borrowing rates.

In a statement, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said banks availed of peso rediscount loans amounting to P12 million last month, adding to the P15 million secured in April.

Local banks may turn to the BSP’s rediscount window in order to meet their short-term funding needs. Under the facility, lenders can submit promissory notes from outstanding client debts as collateral to acquire fresh money supply, which they can use to hand out more loans or service withdrawals.

For the first seven months, banks got hold of P27 million from the peso rediscount facility, with 54.7% channelled to housing credits and permanent working capital. On the other hand, those used for commercial lending went up to 44.5%, while a 0.8% share was extended to production.

The availments came as new borrowing rates took effect on July 21 after the central bank closed the special window for thrift, rural, and cooperative banks which was in place since 2013.

The BSP took away the preferential rates imposed on the small lenders due to low availments, with Deputy Governor Diwa C. Guinigundo saying that these banks do not need the facility in order to remain liquid.

With the adjustment, rediscount loans secured by the small banks will be charged the same as those incurred by bigger lenders at 3.5625% for loans maturing in 90 days and 3.625% for 180-day credit lines.

Meanwhile, the dollar and yen rediscount windows remained untouched as of end-July.

Interest rates under the foreign currency windows saw mixed movements for August, with dollar yields tracking the rise in benchmark rates in the United States.

Yields for dollar loans rose to 3.31056% for 90-day loans; 3.37306% for 91- to 180-day loans; and 3.43556% for 181- to 360-day loans. This comes as the US Federal Reserve raised policy rates by another 25 basis points during last month’s review.

On the other hand, yen-denominated loans will fetch lower rates at 1.98421% for one to 90-day loans, 2.04671% for 91- to 180-day loans, and 2.10921% for 181- to 360-day loans.

Central bank officials have said that the Philippine financial system remains awash with cash, with banks holding on to more idle funds despite strong credit growth. — Melissa Luz T. Lopez

Strong sales lift Alliance Select 1st half profit

August 11, 2017 | 12:01 am

IMPROVED SALES of salmon and tuna helped Alliance Select Foods International, Inc. grow its profit 126% in the first half of 2017.

The international seafood firm told the stock exchange on Thursday that attributable net income reached $320,000 in the six months ending June, 126% higher from the same period last year.

Total consolidated revenues rose 10% to $35 million with “the sustained double-digit growth in its salmon segment, and strong recovery in the performance of its tuna segment.”

During the first half, Alliance Select said tuna sales were valued at $20 million, up 5% year on year, while the firm’s salmon segment jumped 19% to $13.7 million.

“[O]ur turnaround strategy continues to deliver healthy revenue growth supported by continued diversification of our product lines, expansion of customer segments, effective working capital management, and steadfast focus on operational efficiencies,” Alliance Select President & CEO Raymond K.H. See was quoted.

Shares in Alliance Select added 5 centavos or 6.25% to close at 85 centavos apiece on Thursday. — Janina C. Lim

PHL Q2 GDP may have picked up on gov’t spending, exports

August 11, 2017 | 12:01 am

THE Philippine economy may have expanded by 7% in the second quarter, the economic planning secretary said on Wednesday, outpacing the 6.4% pace in January-March that was the slowest in more than a year.

“I think it would be better than last quarter. I have a hunch,” Ernesto Pernia told reporters.

Asked whether gross domestic product would have grown by 7% in the second quarter, Mr. Pernia said it was “still possible.”

Increased government spending as well as improved exports and agriculture output contributed to the faster economic expansion in April-June, he said.

Domestic consumption also remained firm, said Mr. Pernia, as the peso’s recent slide to 11-year lows against the dollar should have encouraged some families with overseas members remitting funds to spend more.

The Philippine government’s push to upgrade its dilapidated roads, railways, ports and airports, that have been a drag on the economy, has spurred a construction boom and President Rodrigo R. Duterte has vowed to sustain infrastructure spending.

The Southeast Asian economy is one of Asia’s fastest-growing and the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday it expects growth to be at 6.8% in the medium term.

Mr. Pernia shrugged off concerns of overheating as the expanding economy keeps bank lending growing at a double-digit pace.

“We have slack in terms of the growth potential of the economy. We are not really hitting the limit of the potential,” he said.

The government will release second-quarter GDP data on Aug. 17. — Reuters

Nissan workers reject union bid at Mississippi plant

August 11, 2017 | 12:01 am

NISSAN has defeated a bid by the United Auto Workers to unionize employees at a factory in the US Deep South, ending a bitter contest that critics said laid bare a racial divide in the company.

Some 60% of the approximately 3,500 workers in the Mississippi factory rejected the union in the vote that ended Friday, according to results released by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), with pro-union employees vowing to continue their fight.

In a statement following the tally’s release the company said it believes the outcome “positions Nissan to be competitive in the future” and urged the United Auto Workers union to end its bid to organize employees.

Nissan had been accused of conducting a vicious anti-union campaign at the plant — where 80% of the blue-collar work force is African-American, and about 3,000 temporary and contract employees working at the plant were not eligible to cast a ballot.

“It ain’t over yet,” Michael Carter, a Nissan employee who helped lead the union drive, told a crowd of more than 100 union supporters after the votes were counted.

“We are never giving up,” he added.

After years of work trying to organize foreign car factories in the South, UAW President Dennis Williams called the results a setback for workers — but said defeat should not be conceded.

“Nissan and its anti-worker allies ran a vicious campaign against its own work force that was comprised of intense scare tactics, misinformation and intimidation,” he said.

A complaint by the NLRB Friday accused Nissan of threatening employees with termination because of union activities, and threatening to close the plant if workers voted to unionize, charges Nissan vehemently denied.

“Nissan is running one of the nastiest anti-union campaigns in the modern history of the American labor movement,” Gary Casteel, secretary-treasurer of the UAW, said in a recent statement.

The factory sits in what is historically one of the poorest areas of the poorest state in the union, according to government census data.

Companies often choose to locate in the US South, where wages are low, unemployment is high and the states are generally anti-union.

While the pro-union forces managed to ring the plant with supporters as the voting began Thursday, workers opposed to the union had fought back on social media and local talk radio.

The anti-union campaign said the UAW’s presence had forced plants to close in other parts of the country and said the union used dues money to support Democratic political candidates like Hillary Clinton.

Nissan said the plant, which sits along the freeway just north of the state capital of Jackson, employs 6,400 workers, adding a measure of prosperity to a depressed region.

Prior to the vote’s conclusion factory worker WaShad Catchings, 37, said the company seems to have different standards for its plants in Mississippi.

He has worked for Nissan since the plant opened in 2003 and gradually came around to supporting the UAW.

“We don’t want to bankrupt the company but we want to negotiate,” he said. “We want a seat at the table. Let’s negotiate. That’s not too much to ask.”

The Delta, as the region is known, is considered the birthplace of the Blues, and residents are predominantly African-Americans, the descendants of the slaves and later poor share croppers who made the region one of the most important cotton-growing regions in the country.

Machines now harvest the cotton but poverty and limited education have restricted economic opportunities.

The UAW has leveraged its history of support for the Civil Rights movement to establish a foothold in the community.

Prior to the vote Harley Shaiken, a labor expert at the University of California-Berkeley, said a loss would not necessarily end the drive to organize.

“I know the union isn’t going away,” Shaiken said. “They have succeeded in building a real social movement around the plant.” — AFP

Summer lovin’?Not in angry Europe’s tourist hot spots

August 11, 2017 | 12:01 am

BARCELONA/ROME/SARAJEVO — Chronic overcrowding in some of Europe’s beloved tourism hot spots is fueling an angry backlash, from polite protest to “Go Home” graffiti, and even physical intimidation.

Across southern Europe, from the choked boulevards of Gaudi’s Barcelona to the swarms of cruise liners disgorging passengers into Croatia’s medieval Dubrovnik, residents are complaining that a sharp rise in tourism is making life intolerable.

The backlash has sparked concerns for one of the region’s biggest economic drivers and prompted authorities to act.

Rome is considering limiting visitor numbers to parts of the eternal city, such as the Trevi fountain. Dubrovnik plans to limit cruise ships. Barcelona is planning a new tourism tax.

In Venice last month, residents marched through a throng of visitor to protest against uncontrolled tourism. They did so behind a banner: “My future is Venice.”

Youth activists plan a similar protest in San Sebastián, northern Spain, later this month.

In Barcelona, where anger has been brewing for some time, some graffiti has turned menacing. One slogan, featuring a black silhouette with a red target on its head, reads: “Why call it tourist season if we can’t shoot them?”

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy intervened this week after some anti-tourist anger turned physical. A video emerged of masked activists setting off flares outside a restaurant full of tourists on the island of Palma de Majorca. They then entered the restaurant and threw confetti at frightened diners.

Rajoy described the activists as “extremists going against common sense.” Tourism makes up 12% of Spain’s economy.

Similar videos were released this week under the slogan “tourism kills neighborhoods.” In one, several hooded individuals stop a tourist bus in Barcelona, slashing the tires and spray-painting the windscreen.

“We haven’t seen any of that yet but we heard that the locals are not that fond of tourists,” said 20-year-old Dutch tourist Roel Theuniszen as he took a break from cycling on a rental bike outside Barcelona’s popular Ciutdella Park.

“It’s important to try not to stand out as a tourist in a city like Barcelona to have a good experience … Also, it’s important to be more considerate (as a tourist).”

“AN INVASION”
Tourism to southern Europe has surged over the past two years, partly because visitors are choosing the region over other Mediterranean destinations where security fears are a concern, such as Tunisia, Egypt, and Turkey.

Visitors to Spain jumped 12% in the first half of 2017 to 36.4 million. Barcelona draws at least 11 million visitors a year and is planning a new tax that will hit cruise ships: 65 euro cents for each visitor staying less than 12 hours. About 750 cruise ships docked at Barcelona last year.

Tourist arrivals in Italy rose a modest 1% in 2016 to almost 56 million, but hotel stays were up 4.8% in the first half of 2017. Foreign visitors to the glories of Rome, Florence, and Venice surged 31.5% between 2009 and 2015.

Resident anger has prompted Italian authorities to monitor tourists more closely, with special patrols in Rome’s historic center and fines for people who paddle in the fountains.

Venetian authorities experimented with limiting access to certain areas during a festival for the first time in the city’s history in July, shortly after the street protest.

Some officials have proposed ticket-only access to St. Mark’s Square, which heaves with people in summer, but local and national authorities are against this.

“The city has completely lost its identity,” said Alessandro Bressanello, a Venetian actor who joined the 25 April civil group which wants limits imposed on new tourist accommodation and better management of tourist flows.

“Everyone should be able to come here but this invasion creates real problems for Venetians and the city, it creates infinite amounts of rubbish and noise,” Mr. Bressanello said.

THE DUBROVNIK SHUFFLE
Authorities in the town of Dubrovnik, on Croatia’s Adriatic coast, are considering cutting the limit on daily visits by cruise liners to two from up to five currently, due to concerns of overcrowding at the UNESCO World Heritage site.

More than 5,000 tourists from cruise liners flocked to the walled town in a single day in June on top of thousands vacationing in the city. UNESCO has even warned that Dubrovnik’s World Heritage status is at risk.

A walk through the old town’s 300-meter-long pedestrian zone can take 40 minutes in peak season. The old town’s resident population is dwindling as residents move away to escape the crowds, traffic jams, and noise.

“It must never happen again that more than two cruise ships come to the town at the same moment,” Dubrovnik Mayor Mato Frankovic said recently.

Croatia overall saw a 10.5% jump in tourists last month from a year earlier, tourism association data shows.

For its part, Cruise Lines International Association says it expects more tourism restrictions in some places and that it is committed to sustainable tourism.

Elsewhere, Portugal expects a record 27 million visitors this year and Greece a record 28 million, but neither has seen a big backlash.

In France, too, relations between tourists and residents appear good, despite a comedian’s attempt to suggest otherwise last month.

He arranged for a plane to fly over Carnon beach in southern France, trailing a banner with decidedly Anglo-Saxon wording requesting the tourists to go home. — Reuters

Demand for child webcam sex in Mekong ‘outstripping supply’

August 11, 2017 | 12:01 am

BANGKOK — Demand for sex with children is an emerging cause of human trafficking in the Mekong region, the United Nations said on Thursday, as it pointed to a shift in child sex webcam centers from the Philippines to Thailand.

The problem had grown so much that demand for child webcam sex tourism is “outstripping the supply,” Deanna Davy, senior research consultant at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said at the launch of a new trafficking report in Bangkok.

Thailand is a regional hub for the smuggling and trafficking of men, women, and children from poorer neighboring countries such as Cambodia and Myanmar.

Many are forced to work in Thailand’s sex industry and in labor intensive sectors such as fishing, construction, and agriculture, where they are sometimes subject to abuse, according to investigations by rights groups and the media.

Around four million migrants live in Thailand, according to 2015 government data. The UNODC estimates that between four and 23% of migrants in Thailand are trafficking victims.

Jeremy Douglas, regional representative of the UNODC, said recent intelligence showed a shift in child sex abuse webcam centers to Thailand from the Philippines, where authorities have tried to crack down on the illegal trade.

“It used to be the Philippines but through some of our interviews we’ve found that it’s moving here and we’re seeing some intelligence indicate that a move of people setting up operations in Thailand is happening,” Mr. Douglas told Reuters.

He said the victims were children from Thailand and neighboring countries.

“When things operate in the shadows like that it’s really hidden … but this should be an issue of concern,” he said.

A spokesman for the Thai government was not able to comment immediately on the UNODC findings.

The UN children’s agency said in a 2016 report poor families in the Philippines were pushing their children into performing live sex online for pedophiles around the globe, calling it a form of “child slavery.”

The UNODC pointed on Thursday to child sex abuse, along with trafficked migrant labor for illegal logging purposes, as emerging trafficking issues of concern in the region.

A Bangkok court convicted dozens of people, including police and politicians, last month for trafficking migrants in Thailand’s biggest human trafficking trial.

In June, the US State Department left Thailand on a Tier 2 Watchlist, just above the lowest ranking of Tier 3, in its annual Trafficking in Persons Report, because it said Thailand did not do enough to tackle human smuggling and trafficking. — Reuters

Stocks decline further on geopolitical concerns

August 11, 2017 | 12:01 am

LOCAL STOCKS declined on Thursday as negative sentiment reigned in regional markets amid the United States’ (US) heightening political tensions with North Korea.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index dropped 0.24% or 19.58 points to 7,966.25.

The broader all-shares index declined 0.3% or 14.57 points to 4,708.56 points.

“Right now the market is viewing it as a lot of saber-rattling and a lot of smoke, but not much fire,” Regina Capital Development Corp. Managing Director Luis A. Limlingan said in a mobile phone message on Thursday, referring to the political tension between US and North Korea.

Southeast Asian stock markets, except Singapore and Vietnam, edged lower on Thursday as lingering tensions between the US and North Korea dampened risk appetite in the region, which is geographically close to the epicenter of this crisis.

Asian shares snapped a brief foray into positive territory earlier in the day to drop 0.9%, extending losses from Wednesday when strong rhetoric drove investors out of stocks and into textbook safe havens like gold and Treasuries.

Pyongyang’s state-run KCNA news agency said it was considering plans to fire four intermediate-range missiles to land 30-40 kilometers from Guam, a US Pacific territory home to a military base that includes a submarine squadron and an air base.

This comes after US President Donald J. Trump said on Tuesday North Korea “will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen” if it threatened the United States again.

Summit Securities, Inc. President Harry G. Liu said investors are likewise still digesting corporate earnings results for the first half.

“Overall, it’s still within the resistance and support level consolidating in the medium term… We need better news to push it to the 8,100 [level],” Mr. Liu said in a phone interview yesterday.

Regina Capital’s Mr. Limlingan also noted that investors were waiting for the result of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) policy meeting.

After markets closed yesterday, the BSP announced it kept interest rates steady, noting the inflation environment “remains manageable.”

PSEi_081117

Sectoral counters ended mixed on Thursday. Industrials slumped 1.61% or 176.19 points to 10,749.66; holding firms went down 1.12% or 89.35 points to 7,859.37; and mining and oil dropped 0.8% or 102.34 points to 12,608.72.

Meanwhile, services surged by 1.73% or 28.64 points to 1,684.46; financials climbed 0.42% or 8.45 points to 1,994.42; and property inched up 0.23% or 8.93 points to 3,786.66.

Decliners trumped advancers, 111 to 84, while 52 issues closed unchanged.

Value turnover stood at P5.17 billion on Thursday, lower than Wednesday’s P6.93 billion, as 1.17 billion issues changed hands.

Net foreign buying continued and was logged at P168.94 million yesterday, down from the P342.71 million seen the previous trading day. — J.C. Lim with Reuters

Kate Hudson joins Michael Kors to Watch Hunger Stop

August 11, 2017 | 12:01 am

MICHAEL KORS has announced that actress, author, entrepreneur, and humanitarian Kate Hudson is again supporting Watch Hunger Stop, the fashion brand’s annual campaign to fight global hunger.

“This is the third year I’ve had the honor of collaborating with Michael on this important cause,” says Hudson. “In June, I visited schools in Cambodia, where the funds raised by Watch Hunger Stop enable the United Nations World Food Program to feed children so they receive the nutrition they need to grow and to finish their education. It was an amazing experience — I can’t wait to share everything that I saw and learned there.”

Watch Hunger Stop, established in 2013, raises funds and awareness to help achieve a world with Zero Hunger. The brand’s partner in the effort is the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), and funds go to support WFP’s school meals program.

The sale of special products is one way Watch Hunger Stop raises funds for WFP. This year, those products will include a special edition of the not-yet-released Michael Kors Access Sofie smartwatch and a unique version of the brand’s bestselling Lon aviator sunglasses.

Dutch students grow their own biodegradable car

August 11, 2017 | 12:01 am

EINDHOVEN, NETHERLANDS — What’s made of sugar, can carry four people, and travel at 50 miles (80 km) per hour? A biodegradable car, whose inventors say could be the next step in environmentally friendly motoring.

The lightweight electric car, created by students in the Netherlands, is made of a resin derived from sugar beets and covered with sheets of Dutch-grown flax.

“Only the wheels and suspension systems are not yet of bio-based materials,” said Yanic van Riel, one of the developers from the TU/Ecomotive team at the Eindhoven University of Technology.

The structure of the car they have called Lina has a similar strength-weight ratio to that of fiberglass and weighs only 310 kg.

But the prototype has not yet passed crash tests, because the material “will not bend like metal, but break,” said the team’s leader Noud van de Gevel.

Demands to reduce air pollution and tackle climate change have pushed auto companies towards alternative designs, but most are still require a great deal of energy to make.

“Energy that is saved while driving the car is now spent during the production phase,” van de Gevel said.

The TU/Ecomotive team plans to test drive Lina later this year, once given the green light by the Netherlands Vehicle Authority. — Reuters

Livestock, aquaculture back in focus in 2017 Davao agri expo

August 11, 2017 | 12:01 am

POULTRY, HOGS, aquaculture and the game fowl industry will be the focus of the 19^th Davao Agri-Trade Expo (DATE), scheduled this year on Sept. 21-23 at the SMX Convention Center. Ronald C. Go, president of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (DCCCII), the organizer of the event, said there was a clamor from stakeholders and the business community to tackle the livestock industry’s concerns as well as opportunities for growth and development. Livestock was also highlighted in the 2015 DATE. DCCCII Chair Antonio T. dela Cruz, meanwhile, said among the participants they expect this year are members of the Philippine-American Chamber of Commerce based in Houston, Texas. The group will be led by Los Angeles Consul General Adelio Angelito S. Cruz, who visited Davao City last month to meet with DCCCII officials. “In September this year, they (Philippine-American chamber) will be coming back in Davao for the DATE and next year they will come here for the Kadayawan celebration and the Consul General will be bringing Filipino-American businessmen from five states, including Texas,” said Mr. Dela Cruz said. The annual expo aims to bring together global and national agricultural experts who will provide best practices information, updates on agricultural standards, and emerging markets. — Maya M. Padillo

Music therapy may not lead to big benefits for kids with autism

August 11, 2017 | 12:01 am

CHILDREN with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) don’t benefit from the addition of music therapy on top of their usual treatments, according to results from a large international clinical trial.

Researchers found that children with ASD in nine countries scored similarly on a test of their social skills whether or not they had received the music therapy.

“Music therapy — like many other interventions that have been suggested — does not improve autism symptoms,” said senior author Christian Gold, of the Grieg Academy Music Therapy Research Center and Uni Research Health in Bergen, Norway.

ASDs are developmental disorders that can lead to social, communication and behavioral challenges. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that one in 68 children in the US has been diagnosed with an ASD.

The anecdotal link between music and ASD goes back many years, Gold and colleagues write in JAMA. During music therapy, a person helps a child spontaneously make music through singing, playing, and movement.

There are about 7,000 music therapists in the United States and about 6,000 in Europe, the researchers write.

For the new study, the researchers recruited 364 children ages four to seven years from 10 treatment centers between 2011 and 2015. The centers were in Australia, Austria, Brazil, Israel, Italy, Korea, Norway, the UK, and the US.

All of the children received the usual care a child with ASD would receive in their region, but half of the children were randomly assigned to also get music therapy.

Usual care could range from early intensive behavioral interventions, to speech and language therapy, to sensory-motor therapies and medications, Gold told Reuters Health by e-mail.

“Music therapy is also among the interventions that have been recommended when it is available,” he said. “Some parents who are frustrated with behavioral interventions may experience it as bringing back the joy of being with their child in a natural way.”

After five months of therapy, the researchers did not find a difference between the two groups of children on a measure of social skills.

Gold said parents should continue to pursue music therapy if they feel it’s a good match for their children, but don’t expect it to be a so-called treatment.

“Since the very first descriptions of autism in the 1940s, it has been noted that many people with autism have a special interest in music,” he said. “Music therapists can help them to pursue that interest. If they also learn something about social communication through that, even better. But the pursuit of music or music therapy should not be guided primarily by the hope to reduce core symptoms of autism, because that may not be the result.”

The researchers also point out that the new results conflict with a review of previous studies that was published in the respected Cochrane Library. The review found a benefit from music therapy, but the studies included in that analysis were smaller and were rated as only of low to moderate quality.

There is still room for additional research to see if music therapy may lead to benefit among some children, said Dr. Sarabeth Broder-Fingert, of the Boston University School of Medicine.

“Although the study taken as a whole makes it look like music therapy is not effective, if you pull out certain sub-populations it may work,” said Broder-Fingert, lead author of an editorial accompanying the new study.

She said parents who are considering music therapy should consider the new study’s findings.

“As a parent, you also have to think of the outcome that matters to you,” Broder-Fingert said.

Gold added that more research is warranted.

“Efforts are already underway to improve music therapy, for example by improving their specific skills or by involving parents more actively,” he said. “We should not assume that what music therapists are doing already is working well, but should try to continuously develop it further and test it.” — Reuters

SOURCE: bit.ly/2umc3jc and bit.ly/2umRwuV JAMA, online Aug. 8, 2017.