Rising demand for PHL goods boosts July PMI By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario
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HE country’s manufacturing performance improved on the back of increased foreign demand for Filipino goods, among others, according to Standard & Poor’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI). PMI picked up to 51.9 in July from 50.9 in June. S&P Global Market Intelligence economist Maryam Baluch said this marked a stronger improvement in operating conditions at the beginning of the third quarter. S&P Global Market Intelligence said there was anecdotal evidence that the customer base for Filipino goods increased and led to new
export orders that helped PMI accelerate to a three-month high. “[T he] continued improvement in the underlying demand picture helped drive the latest upturn, with both production and new orders recording stronger rates of expansion. New export orders also increased during July,” Baluch said. “Moreover, though July data reported a slight intensification of price pressures, rates of both input price and output charge inflation have eased considerably from the highs seen over the last three years. The latest data adds to our current forecast that the central bank will abstain from further tightening its monetary policy in the near-term,” she added.
Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort also said the latest PMI level means the index has been expanding or was above 50 for 23 straight months since September 2021. This, Ricafort added, was also the fastest in two months and was an improvement from the 50.8 level posted in July 2022. He said the PMI is expected to continue expanding, especially now that President Marcos lifted the Covid-19 state of public health emergency throughout the country. This leads to more business and economic activities, as well as faster expansion in manufacturing. “For the coming months, other
positive factors include the economic reopening narrative in China [Covid restrictions eased since December 2022], which is the world ’s second largest economy and among the biggest trad ing par t ners and e x por t ma rkets of t he Phi l ippines,” R icafort said. Earlier, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said the Volume of Production Index (VoPI) registered a year-on-year increment of 8.1 percent in May 2023. This rate is faster than the annual increase of 7.7 percent in the previous month. In May 2022, however, VoPI contracted by 0.6 percent. See “PMI,” A2
BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business
PHL END-JUNE DEBT UP 10.6% TO RECORD P14.1T www.businessmirror.com.ph
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Wednesday, August 2, 2023 Vol. 18 No. 289
P25.00 nationwide | 2 sections 24 pages | 7 DAYS A WEEK
By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas
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HE Philippines’s outstanding debt as of end-June rose by 10.6 percent year-on-year to P14.15 trillion, a new record high for the country, from last year’s P12.791 trillion, according to the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr). The outstanding debt stock was P51.31 billion higher than May’s P14.095 trillion level due to net issuance of domestic securities, the Treasury said. On an annual basis, the latest debt figure was P1.356 trillion higher than the P12.791 trillion recorded outstanding debt by the government in June of last year, Treasury data showed. The country’s debt has grown by P730 billion since end-December 2022 when it was estimated at P13.42 trillion. The latest debt figure is already 96.72 percent of the anticipated P14.63-trillion outstanding debt of the national government by the end of the year. The Treasury explained that 68.6 percent of the country’s outstanding debt were domestic borrowings while the remaining 31.4 percent were sourced externally. The national government’s (NG) domestic debt reached P9.7 trillion at the end of the first half. The figure was 1.2 percent higher than the P9.588 trillion recorded in May and was 10.7 percent over last year’s P8.767 trillion, according to the Treasury. “For the month, domestic debt growth amounted to P114.32 billion due to the net issuance of government bonds driven by the NG’s financing requirements. Year-to-Date, domestic debt has an increment of P494.44 billion or 5.4 percent,” the Treasury said. Meanwhile, the NG’s external debt rose by 10.4 percent on an annual basis to P4.445 trillion from P4.024 trillion recorded in June 2022. However, on a monthly basis, the external debt was lower by P63 billion than the P4.508 trillion recorded in May. “The reduction in foreign debt was driven by the impact of currency adjustments affecting both See “Debt,” A2
See “Digitalization,” A2
SARINA BOLDEN scores the underdog Philippines’s historic match-winner at the FIFA Women’s World Cup, 1-0, over New Zealand on Tuesday—a first shot on goal in the 24th minute, flipping the script and silencing a packed Sky Stadium in Wellington of 33,000 mostly newly minted Kiwi soccer fans. Story on Sports B8. AP
‘CATCH TO CAN’ Employees at Mega Prime Foods Inc. in Santo Tomas, Batangas, carefully sort fresh fish at their newly opened processing plant to be canned as Mega Sardines. The plant’s inauguration coincides with the launch of the Mega Sardines Museum, aiming to attract 5,000 monthly visitors for an immersive “catch-to-can” experience. This endeavor reflects the company’s legacy of promoting food sustainability by demonstrating affordable, nutritious, and safely packaged seafood products, educating people about responsible choices in seafood consumption and environmental impact. BERNARD TESTA
‘QUADRUPLE WHAMMY’ TO HIT PINOYS’ GUT By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz @joveemarie
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NDI A’S rice export ban, Vietnam’s move to halve its exports, typhoons like Egay, and the scuttling of the Ukraine grain deal are “the quadruple whammy” that will hurt the Philippines, the world’s second and sixth biggest rice and wheat
importer, said Deputy Speaker Ralph Recto on Tuesday. Recto said the government should look into experts’ suggestions to address “the quadruple whammy.” “Ito ang suntok sa sikmura na dapat paghandaan nating lahat. [This is the punch in the stomach that we should all prepare for]. These developments are
the sound of empty pots clanging,” Recto said in a statement. President Marcos’s warning that rice prices could go up is the refreshing honesty of telling the truth to the people that should spur a whole-of-nation action on how to meet the crisis ahead, he added. See “Quadruple whammy,” A2
DTI sets eye on finishing EU FTA negotiations before 2028 By Andrea E. San Juan @andreasanjuan
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R ADE and Industr y Secretar y A lfredo E. Pascual said the Department of Trade and Industr y (DTI) will exert “all efforts possible” to finish the formal negotiations on the trade agreement between
the Philippines and the European Union before the end of the administration of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. “We will really exert all efforts possible to get it done before the end of the Marcos Jr. administration,” Pascual said on the sidelines See “DTI,” A2
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 54.8340 n JAPAN 0.3854 n UK 70.4178 n HK 7.0314 n CHINA 7.6760 n SINGAPORE 41.2658 n AUSTRALIA 36.8265 n EU 60.3174 n KOREA 0.0429 n SAUDI ARABIA 14.6166 Source:
BSP (1 August 2023)