‘ANILAG’ Participants in Laguna’s AniLag Festival land-float competition (clockwise: a three-headed nymph from Bay; a duck float from Victoria, duck-raising capital of the Philippines; and a lion float from Santa Rosa, the “Lion City of South Luzon”) are seen at the opening of the weeklong 2023 AniLag (Ani sa Laguna) Festival on Saturday, March 11, 2023. Booths set up by the different towns of Laguna transform the sprawling grounds of the provincial capitol in Santa Cruz into a showcase of the history, culture, produce and natural resources of the province. BERNARD TESTA
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’22 borrowings dip 16% to ₧2.16T
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By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas
@jearcalas
Pinoy tech workers among those hit by mass layoffs
HE Philippines’s total borrowings last year declined by 16.12 percent on an annual basis to a threeyear low of P2.163 trillion as the national government had a hard time borrowing from the domestic debt market due to rising interest rates.
Latest Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) data showed the national government’s total borrowings last year was P415.732 billion higher than the P2.579 trillion recorded in 2021. Furthermore, the national government’s borrowings last year was P47 billion below its P2.21-trillion target amount, based on government data. The target borrowings were anchored on a 75:25 mix, wherein three-fourths of the amount would come from the local debt market while the remaining quarter would be borrowed externally. Treasur y data showed that both the country’s domestic and foreign borrowings declined on a year-on-year basis, but it was the former that posted a doubledigit decline. The national government borrowed P1.643 trillion from the domestic debt market through the sale of Treasury bills and Treasury bonds, which was 18.26 percent lower than the P2.010 trillion it borrowed in 2021. The national government’s gross
domestic borrowings last year comprised P1.194 trillion worth of fixed rate (net) T-bonds, P834.479billion retail T-bonds (RTBs), and a net availment of T-bills amounting to P385.782 billion. The latter part of 2022 saw the national government finding a difficult time awarding the sale of T-bills and T-bonds as investors sought higher yield amid a higher interest rate environment. From rates as low as 0.903 percent to a high of 1.473 percent in January 2022, the auction of T-bills had rates ranging between 4.089 percent and 5.102 percent by end of last year. The net availment of T-bills last year widened to P385.782 billion from P153.336 billion in 2021, indicating that the government had to pay more mature short-term debt papers than the amount it was able to borrow through the government security. Net T-bonds issued by the Treasury last year, meanwhile, declined by 5.16 percent to P1.194 billion from P1.259 billion in 2021.
By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla
F EXPLAINER »B4
What’s happening at Fukushima plant 12 years after meltdown?
ILIPINO information and communication workers were not spared from the mass layoffs from technology firms which tried to cut down on expenses this year, according to a new report from the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). In its latest Job Displacement Report (JDR) obtained by BusinessMirror, DOLE’s Bureau of Local Employment disclosed that the sector logged the highest increase in the number of permanently displaced workers in January, at 3,089.
This was 87.4 percent higher compared to the 1,684 displaced workers who lost their information and communication-related jobs in the same period last year. Several multinational tech firms such as Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon earlier announced their decision to lay off thousands of workers due to uncertain economic conditions this year.
Displacement trends
ASIDE from information and communication, other sectors with registered high increases in permanent labor displacement were the See “Pinoy,” A2
SHORTER LIVES, WIDER GAPS FROM LOWER HEALTH, EDUCATION SPEND By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario
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HE decline in non-Covidrelated spending for health and education during the pandemic is expected to reduce life expectancy as well as increase inequality nationwide, according to the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS). In a discussion paper, PIDS Senior Research Fellows Michael R.M. Abrigo and Connie BayudanDacuycuy as well as President Aniceto C. Orbeta Jr. said non-Covid-
related human capital spending nationwide declined by at least P118 million between 2018 and 2020. For households, the decline was higher for health at 15.2 percent compared with education at 0.1 percent due to falling incomes. Public sector spending, however, increased 9.4 percent for education and decreased by 9.2 percent for health. “The drop in per capita health expenditures in the early Covid-19 pandemic relative to the 2018 baseline is expected to lead
to a decline in life expectancy at birth, no change in average lifetime labor income, and a rise in income inequality. The impact on life expectancy may not be unexpected, given the significant drop in health expenditures in 2020,” the researchers said. The authors, Abrigo, Dacuycuy, and Orbeta, also stated that other factors will complicate the situation of the country. They said that a decline in early-life mortality and fertility rate, which has reached below replacement rate, as well as the
reduction of life expectancy on the back of higher adult mortality, will “depress income per capita.” The PIDS researchers said the early or premature death of adults in their prime will slow the growth of the working-age population compared to the elderly and children in the population. Abrigo, Dacuycuy, and Orbeta also said that early deaths could prevent the country from maximizing the returns on its human capital investments. See “Shorter lives,” A2
See “’borrowings,” A2
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 55.2380 n JAPAN 0.4057 n UK 65.8824 n HK 7.0372 n CHINA 7.9331 n SINGAPORE 40.8263 n AUSTRALIA 36.4018 n EU 58.4529 n KOREA 0.0416 n SAUDI ARABIA 14.7145 Source: BSP (March 10, 2023)