Philippines sends fighter aircraft over Chinese vessels in South China Sea

March 28, 2021 | 2:46 pm

MANILA – The Philippine military is sending light fighter aircraft to fly over hundreds of Chinese vessels in disputed waters in the South China Sea, its defense minister said, as he repeated his demand the flotilla be withdrawn immediately.

International concern is growing over what the Philippines has described as a “swarming and threatening presence” of more than 200 Chinese vessels that Manila believes were manned by maritime militia.

The boats were moored at the Whitsun Reef within Manila’s 200-mile exclusive economic zone..

The Philippine military aircraft were sent daily to monitor the situation, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said in a statement late on Saturday.

Mr. Lorenzana said the military will also beef up its naval presence in the South China Sea to conduct “sovereignty patrols” and protect Filipino fishermen.

“Our air and sea assets are ready to protect our sovereignty and sovereign rights,” Mr. Lorenzana said.

The Chinese Embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It has said the vessels at Whitsun Reef were fishing boats taking refuge from rough seas and that there were no militia aboard.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte reaffirmed to China’s ambassador, Huang Xilian, the Philippines had won a landmark arbitration case in 2016, which made clear its sovereign entitlements amid rival claims by China, his spokesman said last week.

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, China and Vietnam have competing territorial claims in the South China Sea, through which at least $3.4 trillion of annual trade passes. — Reuters

COVAX expects full vaccine supplies from India’s Serum in May, says UNICEF

March 28, 2021 | 12:27 pm

NEW DELHI – A World Health Organization (WHO)-backed programme to supply coronavirus vaccines to poorer countries expects that the Serum Institute of India (SII) will resume full deliveries of the AstraZeneca shot to it in May, UNICEF said on Saturday.

“Deliveries of SII/AZ vaccine are expected to begin fully again by May, with catch-up deliveries to reach every participant’s full allocation up to May, accelerating thereafter,” a UNICEF spokeswoman told Reuters in an email.

The spokeswoman added that the programme, known as COVAX, was in talks with New Delhi to secure “some supply” in April too. COVAX was expecting a total of 90 million doses from SII in March and April, of which it has received about 28 million.

UNICEF is the distributing partner of the programme, run with the GAVI vaccine alliance.

India, the world’s biggest vaccine maker, said on Friday it would make domestic COVID-19 inoculations a priority as infections surge, and had told international buyers of its decision.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday that India’s decision was “understandable” but that the WHO was in talks so it continues providing doses to other countries.

So far COVAX has delivered 32 million vaccine doses to 61 countries, but 36 countries still await vaccines to start inoculations, Tedros said. (Reporting by Krishna N. Das Editing by Frances Kerry)

How a desert wind blew $10 billion of global trade off course

March 28, 2021 | 11:29 am

The forecast for Tuesday, March 23, showed wind gusts of more than 40 miles per hour and sand storms sweeping through northern Egypt. Indeed, such weather is common in the Sinai desert at this time of year.

The Suez Canal—one of the most critical, yet precarious waterways on the planet—remained open. Ships were starting to form the daily convoy as the gusts picked up. One of the world’s biggest container vessels, the Ever Given, joined it. The decision would reverberate globally within hours.

By 7:40 a.m. local time, the megaship—loaded with containers that would stretch more than 120 kilometers (75 miles) end to end and carrying everything from frozen fish to furniture—was stuck. Its grounding would not only lay bare the intricacies of navigating a man-made trench of water in a vessel the size of the Eiffel Tower, but also the fragility of a global network of markets and economies that takes for granted the flow of goods through it.

Based on tracking data and dozens of interviews with people in the industry, what’s known is that the Ever Given started heading through the 300 meter-wide canal while at least one other ship decided to hold off due to the high winds. The Ever Given also didn’t employ tug boats, according to two people with knowledge of the situation, while the two slightly smaller container ships immediately ahead did.

Then there was the issue of how fast it was going. When the ship began to move toward the sand, it appeared to speed up, perhaps to correct itself, though it was too late and it almost collided with the bank. That served to then wedge the steel hull more deeply into the side of the canal. The gusts also would have compounded what’s considered by captains as one of the toughest water crossings in the world.

“You’re in for some white-knuckle rides,” said Andrew Kinsey, a former captain who has navigated a 300-meter cargo ship through the Suez and is now a senior marine risk consultant at Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty. “It’s such a small canal, the winds are very rough and you have a really small margin for error and big consequences if errors happen.”

It wasn’t a situation where you couldn’t sail, even though wind was strong enough to close nearby ports. Some vessels used tugs or other assistance, others just passed through without incident.

At least one ship decided to delay the trip through the canal, though. The day before the Ever Given grounded, the Rasheeda was among the ships approaching the canal from the southern end. Mindful of the dangers of the coming sandstorm and laden with liquefied natural gas from Qatar, the captain decided not to enter the canal after discussion with other officials at Royal Dutch Shell Plc, which manages the ship, according to two people familiar with the situation.

The Suez Canal Authority said a lack of visibility in adverse weather led to the ship losing control and drifting. It hasn’t commented further. Taiwan-based Evergreen Line, the time charterer of the vessel, said by email the Ever Given “was grounded accidentally after deviating from its course due to suspected sudden strong wind.”

The manager of the ship, Benhard Schulte Shipmanagement, said initial investigations suggest the accident was due to the wind. An extensive investigation involving multi-agencies and parties is ongoing. It will include interviews with pilots onboard and all bridge personnel and other crew, said a company spokesman.

Meanwhile, the canal remains blocked and the latest reports from people familiar with rescue efforts suggest that will take until at least Wednesday.

A conduit for 12% of the world’s trade, an average of 50 ships pass through Suez every day in convoys that start in the early morning. The Ever Given started its journey soon after daybreak and picked up two local pilots from the Suez Canal Authority. They come onboard to supervise ships making the journey through the waterway that can take up to 12 hours. But the authority’s rules of navigation clearly spell out that the captain, shipowners and charterers remain responsible for accidents.

The Ever Given captain overseeing the bridge had made the journey through the Suez many times before and handled it through gusty wind, according to a former crew member. Shipping companies say that they use their top captains for Suez because of the delicate nature of the trip.

But what happened next left $10 billion worth of goods with nowhere to go with more than 300 ships carrying products across multiple industries now stuck in the gridlock.

The Ever Given lost its bearing and began turning to its starboard side around 5 miles into the mouth of canal. The 200,000-ton ship then careened to its port side, and soon moved sideways and ran aground, its bulbous red bow that juts out to cut efficiently through water firmly embedded in the sandy embankment.

“Here we have just a single vessel that’s out of place and yet it has impact on the entire maritime and global economy,” said Ian Ralby, chief executive officer of I.R. Consilium, a maritime law and security consulting firm that works with governments. “This ship—carrying exactly the kinds of things we rely on day to day—shows that the supply chains we rely on are so integrated and the margin for error is so thin.”

Those piecing together what caused the accident will undoubtedly look at speed. The ship’s last known speed was 13.5 knots at 7:28 a.m., 12 minutes before the grounding, according to Bloomberg data.

That would have surpassed the speed limit of about 7.6 knots (8.7 miles an hour) to 8.6 knots that is listed as the maximum speed vessels are “allowed to transit” through the canal, according to the Suez authority’s rules of navigation handbook posted on its website. Captains interviewed for this story said it can pay to increase the speed in the face of a strong wind to maneuver the ship better.

“Speeding up to a certain point is effective,” said Chris Gillard, who was captain of a 300-meter container ship that crossed the Suez monthly for nearly a decade until 2019. “More than that and it becomes counter effective because the bow will get sucked down deep into the water. Then, adding too much power does nothing but exacerbate the problem.”

Bloomberg data also show that the 300-meter Maersk Denver traveling behind the Ever Given also posted a top speed of 10.6 knots at 7:28 a.m. A spokesperson for Maersk in Denmark declined to comment. Ship captains and local pilots said it’s not unusual to travel through the canal around that speed despite the lower limit.

The Cosco Galaxy, a container ship marginally smaller than the Ever Given, was immediately ahead and appears to have travelled at a similar speed, though with a tugboat. The one ahead of the Cosco, the Al Nasriyah, also had an escort. The escorts are not mandatory, according to the Suez authority’s rules of navigation, though the authority can require it for ships if they deem it necessary.

“The biggest vessels often travel with a tugboat in close proximity, an escort boat, to facilitate the transit,” said Captain Theologos Gampierakis at commodity trading house Trafigura Group in Athens.

A cargo ship with containers stacked high like the Ever Given can be particularly hard to navigate since the ship’s hull and wall of containers can act as a huge sail, said Kinsey, the former captain, who made his last trip through Suez in 2006 .

“You might find yourself positioning the ship in one direction, and you’re actually moving in another direction,” said Kinsey. “There’s a very fine line between having enough speed to maneuver and not having too much speed that the air and hydrodynamics become unstable. Any deviation can get real bad real quick because it’s so tight.”

About 20 minutes after the incident, the first of two tugboats accompanying the vessels ahead of the Ever Given came back to push its port side in an effort to dislodge it, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Later, eight tugboats were deployed to push both sides of the container vessel, but to no avail.

On the ground, officials and investigators were sent to the embankment. Excavators tried to make a dent in helping to release it from the sandy embankment.

In a village 100 meters away from the stuck ship, the vessel looms on the skyline like a giant monument. Every day that it sits still makes it harder to extricate it, due to the sediment that’s being carried by the currents that will pack around the ship under the water, said Kinsey.

The accident will be a missed opportunity if the industry doesn’t adapt, he said. “There will be vessels larger than this one that will be going through the Suez,” he said. “The next incident will be worse.” – Bloomberg

Iran and China sign 25-year cooperation agreement

March 28, 2021 | 11:14 am

DUBAI – China and Iran, both subject to U.S. sanctions, signed a 25-year cooperation agreement on Saturday to strengthen their long-standing economic and political alliance.

“Relations between the two countries have now reached the level of strategic partnership and China seeks to comprehensively improve relations with Iran,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was quoted by Iran’s state media as telling his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif.

“Our relations with Iran will not be affected by the current situation, but will be permanent and strategic,” Wang said ahead of the televised signing ceremony.

“Iran decides independently on its relations with other countries and is not like some countries that change their position with one phone call.”

The accord brings Iran into China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure scheme intended to stretch from East Asia to Europe.

The project aims to significantly expand China’s economic and political influence, and has raised concerns in the United States.

China has spoken out often against U.S. sanctions on Iran and partly contested them. Zarif called it “a friend for hard times”.

Wang met President Hassan Rouhani ahead of the signing in Tehran. The agreement was expected to include Chinese investments in sectors such as energy and infrastructure.

Rouhani expressed appreciation of Beijing’s support for Iran’s position on its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, in which it agreed to curb its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of international sanctions.

“Cooperation between the two countries is very important for the implementation of the nuclear accord and the fulfilment of obligations by European countries,” Rouhani said, according to his official website.

U.S. President Joe Biden has sought to revive talks with Iran on the nuclear deal abandoned in 2018 by his predecessor, Donald Trump in 2018. Tehran wants the sanctions that Trump imposed removed before any negotiations resume.

“Under the new administration, the Americans want to reconsider their policy and return to the nuclear accord, and China welcomes their move,” Wang said.

He also promised that China would provide more coronavirus vaccines to Iran, the Middle Eastern country worst-hit by the pandemic.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said the agreement was a “road map” for trade and economic and transportation cooperation, with a special focus on both countries’ private sectors. – Reuters

Gov’t places Metro Manila under stricter lockdown for 1 week

March 27, 2021 | 8:51 pm

Metro Manila and nearby provinces will once again be placed under the strictest form of lockdown starting Monday, as the country continues to see a surge in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases.

President Rodrigo R. Duterte approved the recommendation of an inter-agency task force to place the National Capital Region (NCR) and the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal under an enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) from March 29 (Monday) to April 4 (Sunday), presidential spokesman Herminio L. Roque, Jr. told a televised press briefing on Saturday.

An 11-hour curfew, between 6 p.m. to 5 a.m., will be enforced in the so-called NCR Plus areas.

Gatherings of more than ten individuals will be prohibited during the week, Mr. Roque said. Religious gatherings will also be banned, even the Catholic community observes Holy Week.

“We want to take drastic measures because there’s a drastic threat. Drastic threats warrant drastic response,” Mr. Roque said.

The Health department reported 9,595 new coronavirus cases, bringing the number of active cases to 118,122 as of Saturday. The surge in COVID-19 infections is putting a strain on the healthcare system, as more hospitals announced they are no longer accepting COVID-19 patients and the utilization rate of intensive care unit (ICU) beds reached 73% in NCR.

Mr. Roque said the diminished capacity of hospitals within and outside NCR prompted the government to implement the most stringent lockdown. He also cited the increase in weekly attack rate, which already reached “more than 200%.”

“We are always data driven. Ang criteria natin for escalation is healthcare utilization rate at lumalabas po na it ay umabot po sa critical,” he said.

Mr. Roque said the one-week strict lockdown will have a “minimal” impact on the economy, as it falls during Holy Week when government and private offices as well as financial markets are closed on Maundy Thursday (April 1) and Good Friday (April 2).

The Philippine economy slumped to a record 9.5% in 2020 as it implemented one of the longest and most stringent lockdowns in the world.

Under the latest resolution adopted by the task force, workplaces and private and public establishments are mandated to retrofit their facilities to ensure adequate ventilation, Mr. Roque said.

Public and privates hospitals, healthcare services, manufacturers of medicine and medical supplies will be allowed to fully operate during the ECQ. Also allowed to operate at full capacity are agriculture and fishery sector workers, as well as delivery and courier services transporting food, medicine and other essential goods.

Malls will not be allowed to operate except for for essential stores such as supermarkets, pharmacies and hardware stores. Restaurants will be allowed to have take-out and delivery services.

Public transport would still be allowed to operate at lower capacity, subject to the guidelines to be issued by the Transportation department.

Construction projects would also be allowed to continue, subject to rules to be issued by the Public works department.

Private establishments providing essential goods and services will be allowed to operate at 50% capacity, Mr. Roque said, as well as media establishments and workers accredited by the Transportation department.

Only skeleton workforce will be allowed for dental and other health clinics, banks, capital markets, telecommunications firms, manufacturers of construction materials, water and energy companies, business process outsourcing (BPO) firms, printing presses, airlines and other industries, Mr. Roque said.

Companies that are allowed to operate are required to provide shuttle services for their workers, Mr. Roque said.

The Palace official said the country’s economic planners have committed to subsidize both working and non-working individuals. Details of the government’s cash-based interventions have yet to be finalized.

Meanwhile, simultaneous vaccination of health workers, senior citizens and persons with comorbidities would now be allowed.

The decision came after several chief executives jumped the coronavirus vaccination queue.

Duterte seeks higher pork imports with low tariff

March 26, 2021 | 11:56 pm

President Rodrigo R. Duterte had asked Congress to increase the minimum access volume for pork imports this year by 350,000 metric tons, his spokesman said on Friday.

The increase was on top of the 54,210 metric tons of pork imports under a lower tariff rate, presidential spokesman Herminio L. Roque, Jr. said in a statement.

“This is to immediately augment the supply of pork, stabilize increasing prices and address the pressing issues on food security,” he added.

The Agriculture department earlier recommended the reduction of tariffs for pork imports to 5% from 30% under the minimum access volume quota for six months amid an African Swine Fever outbreak. The rate will be increased to 10% in the next six months.

It also proposed to expand the minimum access volume to 400,000 MT from 54,000 MT due to rising prices.It also proposed to cut to 15% from 40% the tariff for imports beyond the quota.

The Senate this month adopted a resolution asking the President to declare a state of calamity due to the African Swine Fever and reject the recommendation of the Agriculture department to increase the minimum access volume for pork imports.

“Increasing the MAV and decreasing tariff, proposed ironically by the DA itself, would further derail the recovery of the hog industry, if not kill the local industry altogether,” according to the resolution. — Vann Marlo M. Villegas

Duterte vetoes tax reform bill clauses

March 26, 2021 | 9:05 pm

President Rodrigo R. Duterte on Friday vetoed nine sections of a bill that seeks to cut corporate income tax and reform the Philippine incentive system, including the expanded coverage of properties exempted from value-added tax (VAT).

He vetoed a section increasing the threshold of low-cost housing eligible for VAT exemption to P4.3 million from P2.5 million.

“This will benefit even those not originally targeted for the VAT-exemption — those who can actually afford proper housing,” Mr. Duterte said in his veto message, a copy of which was provided by Albay Rep. Jose Ma. Clemente S. Salceda.

“This results in a tax exemption that is highly distortive and exacts a heavy price on the tax-paying community. The provision is also prone to abuse, as properties can be parceled into lots so that their individual values fall within the VAT-exempt threshold,” he added.

Mr. Duterte said the provision would result in an estimated revenue loss worth P155.3 billion from 2020 to 2030.

He also vetoed a section allowing incumbent and future Presidents to exempt an investment promotion agency from the coverage of Republic Act 11534 or the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act.

‘POLITICAL TOOL’

The provision “disregards the huge steps we have taken to rationalize our fiscal incentive system,” Mr. Duterte said. “It could become a highly political tool that could allow subsequent Presidents to dismantle decades of studies, disregard discussions based on empirical evidence, and even subvert the will of Congress itself.”

The law will lower corporate income tax for local small businesses to 20% from 30%. The tax rate for all other companies, meanwhile, will be reduced gradually to 25% starting July 2020 and will be cut further by a percentage point each year from 2023 to 2027 until it reaches 20%.

The law will also streamline the country’s fiscal incentive system to make it time-bound, performance-based and transparent.

“After more than 20 years of deliberations on the countless versions filed in Congress, corporate income tax reform and fiscal incentives rationalization has finally come to fruition,” Mr. Duterte said. “It comes at an opportune time, since it will serve as a fiscal relief and recovery measure for Filipino businesses still suffering from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The law will result in P251 billion in foregone revenue in the first two years, or P1 trillion worth of tax relief for a decade.

The so-called CREATE Act will be the guiding document for much of Philippine business and industry in the next decades, Mr. Duterte said in his veto message.

“With over P600 billion in tax relief for job creation in the next five years, we lay our faith and invest in Filipino businesses for them to reinvigorate the economy, create more quality jobs and generate more revenues for the government to tide us along these trying times,” he added.

Mr. Duterte also vetoed a section allowing the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to grant tax refunds even without going through an audit, within 90 days. Mr. Duterte said this could force the BIR to haphazardly grant tax refunds or deny an application that was not properly assessed due to the short deadline.

He likewise vetoed a section excluding the value of land and working capital under the description of investment capital in determining projects and programs eligible for tax perks before the Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB).

Mr. Duterte also vetoed the proposed special income tax rate for local businesses with less than P500 million in capital, saying the incentive is too generous.

He said he wanted to provide a level playing field for small businesses that are not registered, which makes up the majority of micro and small enterprises in the country.

Mr. Duterte also vetoed a section to provide a 10-year extension, on top of the additional 14 to 17 years that companies enjoy even if they engage in the same activity. This is “fiscally irresponsible and utterly unfair” to taxpayers and other firms not enjoying the same perks, he said.

“My principle on this matter is simple: Only new activities and projects deserve new incentives,” he added.

He also rejected a proposal to limit the FIRB’s monitoring powers to companies and investment promotion agencies with a capital of more than P1 billion. He said the oversight function would neither result in delays nor create another layer in the approval process.

An item that identifies which economic sectors would be covered was also removed since the law should remain flexible.

Mr. Duterte likewise rejected a line that automatically approved a tax incentive application if not acted upon within 20 days, saying it was contrary to the goal to grant or deny tax perks based on merit.

World Bank cuts Philippine growth outlook

March 26, 2021 | 9:02 pm

The World Bank cut its economic growth forecast for the Philippines to 5.5% this year, citing high coronavirus cases, a slow vaccination program and lackluster government spending.

“The Philippines struggles with COVID-19, which affects growth directly by requiring a very tough response which has imposed a big cost on the economy,” Aaditya Mattoo, the World Bank’s chief economist for East Asia and the Pacific, told a news briefing on Friday.

“The Philippines has been less successful in transitioning away from shutdowns to a more efficient containment strategy,” she added.

The bank lowered its 2021 growth outlook from the 5.9% estimate it gave in January and 6.2% in June, based on a report released on Friday.

The bank raised the growth outlook for next year to 6.3% from 6% in January, and projected a 6.2% expansion in 2023.

These projections were both lower than the Philippine government’s growth targets of 6.5-7.5% this year and 8-10% next year.

The expected Philippine growth number this year was the fifth highest in East Asia and the Pacific. China would probably lead the economic recovery with an estimated 8.1% growth this year, the World Bank said.

Philippine economic output plunged by 9.5% last year, the largest drop since World War II amid a coronavirus pandemic.

Coronavirus infections have surged in the past weeks even as the government started rolling out its vaccination program this month.

The World Bank said countries that relied heavily on stringent lockdown measures such as the Philippines and Indonesia had fared worse than other economies that used effective test-based strategies.

The bank gave an average 66 stringency score for the country’s lockdowns, the second-highest in the region after China’s 68.

It said the Philippines’ vaccination program had been lagging behind its peers, coupled with lingering concerns over the vaccine efficacy among its population.

Government fiscal response was “conservative” and the government had been underspending due to weak implementation of programs, it added.

“In the Philippines, growth is expected to recover in the medium term, contingent on an improved external environment, a successful vaccination program and the loosening of movement restrictions,” according to the bank’s report.

It said an efficient vaccination program should be a priority to reduce the high number of deaths and ease the pressure on struggling healthcare systems.

It said the state had enough fiscal space to support growth but funding supply is constrained by the health crisis and threats of natural disasters.

The World Bank expects economic growth to average at 6.7% and general government revenues at 17.8% of the gross domestic product (GDP) from 2021 to 2025.

It also expects the country’s fiscal deficit at an average 6.4% of the economy during the period, general government debt at 56.4% of GDP, a current account deficit at 2% of GDP and the volume of external financing needs equivalent to 1.5% of the economy.

Also on Friday, Moody’s Analytics said the Philippine economy was in a “worrisome” state given rising consumer prices, rising coronavirus cases and a slow vaccination rollout.

“Elevated inflation, a large output gap, a recent resurgence of COVID-19 infections and limited vaccine availability are all reasons for concern,” Moody’s Analytics economist Katrina Ell said in a e-mailed note.

She said the current state supports the decision of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to keep benchmark interest rates at record lows despite high inflation. But a second-round of inflation spike was a concern, she added.

The Monetary Board on Thursday kept the overnight reverse repurchase rate at an all-time low of 2%, as predicted by 19 economists in a BusinessWorld poll last week. Rates for the overnight lending and deposit facilities were also kept at 2.5% and 1.5%, respectively.

“We expect the central bank will keep current monetary settings on hold in 2021 and that further policy support will come from more targeted fiscal measures as the economy weathers a slower-than-expected recovery this year,” Ms. Ell said.

The government tightened restrictions in Metro Manila and nearby provinces to curb a fresh surge in coronavirus infections.

Moody’s Analytics kept its growth outlook for the Philippines at 6.3% this year.

Duterte seeks higher pork imports with low tariff

March 26, 2021 | 9:00 pm

President Rodrigo R. Duterte had asked Congress to increase the minimum access volume for pork imports this year by 350,000 metric tons, his spokesman said on Friday.

The increase was on top of the 54,210 metric tons of pork imports under a lower tariff rate, presidential spokesman Herminio L. Roque, Jr. said in a statement.

“This is to immediately augment the supply of pork, stabilize increasing prices and address the pressing issues on food security,” he added.

It also proposed to expand the minimum access volume to 400,000 MT from 54,000 MT due to rising prices.It also proposed to cut to 15% from 40% the tariff for imports beyond the quota.

Philippine home prices recover in Q4

March 26, 2021 | 8:57 pm

Home prices rebounded in the past quarter, driven by faster increases in residential real estate outside Metro Manila as more families considered building houses outside the city during a coronavirus lockdown, according to the central bank.

In a report released on Friday, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said the Residential Real Estate Price Index inched up by 0.8% from October to December from a year earlier, bouncing back from the 0.4% contraction in the third quarter.

The growth rate was lower than 10.4% in the fourth quarter of 2019, and was the second slowest since a 0.5% rise in the last quarter of 2018.

On a quarterly basis, the index rose by 2.4% during the period, reversing a 14.1% quarter-on-quarter slump in the preceding three months.

“The positive year-on-year growth in the overall residential property prices was driven mainly by those in areas outside the National Capital Region,” BSP said in a statement, noting that the slump in property prices in the capital region continued for the second straight quarter.

The index gauges the average change in home prices across building types and locations and gives the central bank an insight into the property market, bank exposures to which is regulated.

Home prices outside Metro Manila climbed faster by 5.9% in the fourth quarter from 6.4% in the third quarter. But it was still slower than 8.3% in the fourth quarter of 2019.

All types of housing units in areas outside the capital region went up except for condominium units, which went down by 2.1%. The prices of duplex houses jumped by a fifth, town houses by 14.3% and single detached or attached houses by 4.2%.

More Filipinos seeking new homes outside the capital during a coronavirus pandemic might have caused the increase in home prices, according to Nicholas Antonio T. Mapa, a senior economist at ING Bank N.V. Manila.

“The Philippines is mirroring the global exodus out from major cities, with city dwellers trading in their flats for the clean and green of the suburbs outside the concrete jungle,” he said in an e-mailed note. “The ongoing lockdown, which spawned a growing army of plantitos and plantitas indicate that clean and green is the new standard.”

In Metro Manila, the home price index fell by 4.8% in the fourth quarter, softer than the 12.2% contraction in the third quarter. Year on year, home prices turned around from an 18.9% growth in the fourth quarter of 2019.

Residential property loans given by banks continued to fall by 3.6% year on year in past quarter, easing from a 43.3% drop in the previous quarter. On a quarterly basis, loans grew by three-quarters.

In the capital, loans for new homes went down in the past quarter but increased quarterly, BSP said. Loans to new housing units outside the capital region rose both from a year and a quarter earlier.

The central bank said 42.2% of the loans were given to buyers of condominium units, followed by single detached/attached houses (30.5%), townhouses (26.9%) and duplex units (0.4%).

“This is supported by the demand we saw during the pandemic in the latter half of 2020, when people were looking for horizontal project,” Colliers Philippines Research Manager Joey Roi H. Bondoc said by telephone.

He said they expect house prices to continue rising in areas outside the capital, driven by demand, increased government infrastructure spending and the appetite from migrant Filipino workers.

BoP swings to deficit in February

March 26, 2021 | 8:55 pm

The country’s balance of payments (BoP) swung to a deficit of $2.02 billion in February after the government paid off more foreign loans, central bank data showed.

“The BOP deficit in February 2021 reflected outflows, arising mainly from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’s (BSP) reserve management operations and the foreign currency withdrawals of the National Government,” it said in a statement.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported a surplus of $839 million surplus a year.

These outflows were partly offset by inflows from the central bank’s foreign exchange operations and income from its investments abroad, it added.

The government’s foreign debt stock as of end-January reached P3 trillion, down 3.2% from a month earlier after it repaid P93.49 billion in foreign debt, according to data from the Treasury bureau.

The BoP gives a glimpse of the country’s transactions with the rest of the world. A deficit means more funds left the country, while a surplus shows that more money came in.

The BoP deficit last month reflected the country’s gross international reserves (GIR) of $105.16 billion as of end-February, which was enough buffer to cover 12 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.

It was also equivalent to 7.5 times the country’s short-term foreign debt based on original maturity and 5.2 times based on residual maturity.

“For 2021, we project exports and imports of goods to grow by 5% and 8% year on year, respectively, especially once the domestic economy reopens in the second half with an expected wider vaccine rollout,” Robert Dan J. Roces, chief economist at Security Bank Corp., said.

He also said the global economy could gather steam given the relatively fast pace of vaccination in several countries, some of which are key trading partners.

Exports fell by 5.2% from a year ago to $5.49 billion in January, while merchandise imports went down by 15% to $7.911 billion, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed.

The latest trade data brought the trade deficit to $2.42 billion in January, wider than the $2.149-billion gap in December 2020 but narrower than the year-ago level.

Mr. Roces said the BoP position should post a narrow surplus by year-end as economic recovery gains traction and imports rebound.

The central bank last week revised its BoP surplus projection for 2021 to $6.2 billion, equivalent to 1.6% of economic output, from its previous outlook of a $8-billion surplus. — Beatrice M. Laforga

Daily COVID-19 tally hits record

March 26, 2021 | 8:51 pm

The Department of Health (DoH) reported 9,838 coronavirus infections on Friday, the highest daily tally since the start of the pandemic last year.

Friday’s tally surpassed the number on Thursday at 8,773, bringing the total to 702,856, it said in a bulletin.

The death toll rose by 54 to 13,149, while recoveries increased by 663 to 580,689, it said in a bulletin.

There were 109,018 active cases, 95.1% of which were mild, 3% did not show symptoms, 0.7% were critical, 0.8% severe and 0.42% were moderate.

The agency said 29 duplicates and one case found to have tested negative had been removed from the tally. Twenty-two recovered cases were reclassified as deaths. Six laboratories failed to submit data on Mar. 25.

About 9.3 million Filipinos have been tested for the coronavirus as of Mar. 24, according to DoH’s tracker website.

The coronavirus has sickened about 126.1 million and killed 2.8 million people worldwide, according to the Worldometers website, citing various sources including data from the World Health Organization. About 101.7 million people have recovered, it said.

Meanwhile, healthcare use in the country was at 41%, while internal care use was nearing the threshold for moderate risk, Health Undersecretary Leopold J. Vega told an online briefing.

More than half of or 54.34% of the 2,306 ICU beds in the country had been occupied as of Mar. 24, according to DoH’s tracker website. Bed occupancy in Metro Manila was at “high moderate risk,” he added.

About 61% of more than 8,000 beds in Metro Manila were occupied.

He recommended increasing bed allocations for coronavirus patients especially in government hospitals, adding that modular hospitals were being built to augment bed capacity.

VACCINE PRIORITY

Meanwhile, an inter-agency task force approved a plan to allot most of the 400,000 CoronaVac shots made by Sinovac Biotech Ltd. and donated by China to areas where more contagious variants of the coronavirus had been detected, presidential spokesman Herminio L. Roque, Jr. said.

The vaccines would be given to areas under the so-called National Regional Capital Plus, as well as Cebu and Davao.
The Philippines took delivery of the 400,000 CoronaVac doses on Wednesday. These were on top of the 600,000 doses donated by China and received in February.

President Rodrigo R. Duterte on Sunday tightened the quarantine restrictions for Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal — the NCR Plus — placing them under a “bubble” from Mar. 22 to Apr. 4.

Mass gatherings and some religious activities were banned and an eight-hour curfew was imposed starting at 10:00 p.m.

Only essential travel into and out of Metro Manila and surrounding areas would be allowed.

Mr. Roque said the task force had allowed religious gatherings once a day from April 1 to 4 at 10% capacity.
Also on Friday, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario S. Vergeire said the substitution list for vaccination should only include healthcare workers.

She told an online news briefing they had met with regional directors, agencies and local governments on the protocol for vaccination.

The quick substitution list should be prepared so as not to waste vaccines in case those listed for vaccination decline to get the shots.

Meanwhile, Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque on Friday said we would ask the inter-agency task force to move overseas Filipino workers up on the vaccination priority list.

Migrant Filipino workers would be equal to frontline personnel and essential frontliners on the list, he told a House of Representatives committee hearing.

Under the list, health workers are supposed to get vaccinated first, followed by senior citizens, adults with comorbidities, frontline personnel in essential sectors and the poor.

1...8,3098,3108,311...14,246 Page 8,310 of 14,246