ROTARY CLUB OF MANILA JOURNALISM AWARDS
2006 National Newspaper of the Year 2011 National Newspaper of the Year 2013 Business Newspaper of the Year 2017 Business Newspaper of the Year 2019 Business Newspaper of the Year 2021 Pro Patria Award PHILIPPINE STATISTICS AUTHORITY 2018 Data Champion
BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business
EJAP JOURNALISM AWARDS
BUSINESS NEWS SOURCE OF THE YEAR
(2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021) DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
2018 BANTOG MEDIA AWARDS
‘HIGH OIL PRICES COULD TRIGGER 4% INFLATION’ www.businessmirror.com.ph
I
n
Friday, March 13, 2026 Vol. 21 No. 152
P25.00 nationwide | 2 sections 26 pages | 7 DAYS A WEEK
By Andrea E. San Juan @andreasanjuan
NFLATION could hit 4 percent as early as March if the price of Dubai crude oil persists above $100 per barrel, according to a bank economist.
“Initially, when this war was starting last week, we were looking at close to 4 percent inflation for March,” Angelo Taningco, Chief economist of Security Bank Corporation, said in a televised interview on Thursday. “But now, because we’ve seen Dubai price above $100 per barrel for three straight days already, and that’s more related to us here in Asia, as opposed to, say, Brent or WTI; then if this persists, then we could see inflation already topping 4 percent as early as this month,” he added. Taningco said this may lead inflation to move past the 4-percent level in the upcoming months. Hence, he said this would prompt monetary policy to lean towards “tightening mode” in order to curb inflationary pressure. Asked if the price of oil could skyrocket to $200 a barrel, Security Bank’s chief economist said this is not possible “unless the war escalates.” “Unlikely, because the record high, if I recall, was back in 2008, $140 per barrel. That’s, I think, the worst-case scenario being seen by some or several investors. See “Oil prices,” A13
PRICE HIKE REACHES BARBERSHOPS A barber attends to a customer inside a neighborhood shop in Cainta as a small businesses begin adjusting prices amid rising fuel costs. With diesel prices climbing to around P80 per liter due to
ongoing tensions in the Middle East, community barbershops have increased haircut rates from P100 to P120 per customer to help offset higher operating expenses. The adjustment reflects how global conflicts and fuel price spikes are directly affecting everyday services and small livelihood enterprises. Photo taken at Kambals Barbershop in Cainta, Rizal. BERNARD TESTA
ERC: WESM rates may go up by ₧4/kWh By Lenie Lectura
S
@llectura
YSTEM-WIDE Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) average rates are likely to increase anywhere from P2 to P4 per kilowatt hour (kWh) next month, not only because of rising fuel prices but also due to rising demand for electricity as the dry season begins. Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) chairperson Francis Saturnino Juan told the Philippine Electric Power Industry Forum in Baguio City that the numbers are still preliminary based on varying simulations presented by the Inde-
pendent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP). “The IEMOP simulation presented on the impact of the price increase, so it ranges from P2 to P4. But that’s just a straightforward application of the impact on the marginal plant, the increase in its fuel cost. Because there are times when our market clearing prices are actually set. The marginal plant will be running on oil if the price of oil is like this, this is what their offers will be,” said Juan. IEMOP is the operator of WESM, the venue for trading electricity as a commodity in the country. The possible P2 per kWh increase in average WESM rates is attribut-
“There’s a scenario where there will be a P2 increase. There’s a scenario where it will go up to P4. There is a scenario where there will be a reduction in capacity because there are plants on outage, so the price increase will be greater.” –ERC chief Francis Saturnino Juan ed to plant outage incidents which, in turn, would impact supply and demand. For the P4 per kWh increase, Juan said this is the scenario painted by experts in which the spiraling fuel prices, rising demand for electricity, and possible plant
outages are all factored in. “There’s a scenario where there will be a P2 increase. There’s a scenario where it will go up to P4. There is a scenario where there will be a reduction in capacity because there are plants on outage, so the price increase will be greater,” added Juan. He, however, clarified that the P2 to P4 per kWh increase in WESM rates will not directly manifest in actual power generation cost, which makes up most of the consumers’ electricity bill. “Remember, whatever the movement in the prices in WESM, it won’t necessarily translate one to one in the price of our generation
CONSUMER LOANS RISE 19% TO P3.674T AS OF END-DEC ‘25 By Andrea E. San Juan
C
@andreasanjuan
ONSUMER loans jumped 19 percent to P3.674 trillion as of end-December 2025, with credit card receivables contributing the largest amount, data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed. Of the total consumer loans, credit card receivables account for 32.5 percent, amounting to P1.194 trillion as of end-December 2025.
This is 27.75 percent higher than the P934.65-billion credit card receivables in the same period in 2024. This was followed by Residential Real Estate Loans, amounting to P1.193 trillion as of endDecember 2025, equivalent to 32.47 percent of the total consumer loans. Loans under this category saw an 8.55-percent increase from the P1.099 trillion in the same period in 2024. See “P3.674T,” A2
See “WESM,” A2
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 58.9130 n JAPAN 0.3709 n UK 79.0671 n HK 7.5295 n CHINA 8.5693 n SINGAPORE 46.2389 n AUSTRALIA 42.1346 n EU 68.1977 n KOREA 0.0399 n SAUDI ARABIA 15.6997 Source: BSP (March 12, 2026)