PHL rate hike pause ‘in the cards’ By Andrea E. San Juan
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PHL OBSTACLE RACERS RULE CAMBODIA SEA GAMES MEMBERS of the Philippine obstacle race team—including Pilipinas Obstacle Sports Federation president Atty. Al Agra—dominate the 32nd Southeast Asian Games by sweeping all four gold medals at stake. See B8 Sports for SEA Games stories. ROY DOMINGO
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PAUSING of rate hikes is “in the cards” for the Philippines amid global market developments, a member of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Monetary Board said Saturday. “That’s in the cards. The way the global market is going and the way oil prices are behaving…it augurs well,” MB Member Victor Bruce J. Tolentino said at the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines (EJAP)-San Miguel Corporation (SMC) Business Journalism Seminar last Saturday. Following the US and European central banks raising their interest rates by 25 basis points (bps), Tolentino noted, “Just to keep up, we will probably be
forced to at least…25 again.” The Monetary Board member noted that if the BSP is trying to match the US Federal Reser ve, there’s a possibility of raising another 25 bps in BSP’s next meeting slated for May 18. “Well the actions of the Fed are always a factor that we need to consider because if the differential between US rates and Philippine rates are higher, then it attracts money to go to the US. So we need to watch out for that,” Tolentino stressed. However, he said trying to match the US Fed is not the only factor that prompts the BSP to increase interest rates, and noted that “there are other factors,” such as the change in food prices. “If all of a sudden food prices fell much greater by some miracle, then we might not need to. Again, as I said, it
depends on the data,” Tolentino noted. According to a story by BusinessMirror last Friday, BSP Governor Felipe M. Medalla said he has made his position clear regarding the rate hikes. Should the inflation data be positive on a month-on-month basis, the BSP may pause increases in rates in its next meeting on May 18. Medalla said inflation has been slowing as a result of the arrival of the country’s food imports. The timing of the imports were identified as one of, if not, the biggest causes of the uptick in commodity prices. “I have already made my view very clear, which is that if we have one more good month-on-month inflation, it’s time to pause because we already have two very good months,” Medalla said. See “PHL,” A2
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END-APRIL GIR DECLINES ON DOLLAR OBLIGATIONS T By Cai U. Ordinario
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PHL net oil imports bill soars 64.4% to $19.02B
HE country’s Gross International Reserves (GIR) reached over $100 billion as of the end of April 2023, but was slightly lower than its level the previous month and the same period last year, based on preliminary data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). The data showed the country’s GIR amounted to $101.511 billion as of April 2023. This is lower than the $101.55 billion posted at the end of March 2023 and the $105.4 billion in April 2022. The BSP’s reserve assets consist of foreign investments, gold, foreign exchange, reserve position in the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and special drawing rights. “The lower GIR level in April
reflected mainly the National Government’s [NG] payments of its foreign currency debt obligations,” the BSP said in a statement sent over the weekend. The BSP said the latest GIR level represents a more-than-adequate external liquidity buffer equivalent to 7.6 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income. See “End-April,” A2
By Lenie Lectura @llectura
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ROBOT ASSISTANT Senior High School students Kristin Lana C. Bernardino and Nicole O. Flores from Felta TechVoc Academy in Bulacan prepare their prototype Mobile Robotic. The two won in the recently concluded Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics strand for the National Skills Competition Mobile Robotics Champion and will represent the country in the World Skills competition in mobile robotics in July 2023 in Singapore. Their prototype robot can be used as an assistant robot that can deliver, retrieve, and sort medicine and hazardous materials to different patient rooms and nursing stations in a hospital. NONIE REYES
‘W.H.O.’S COVID LIFTING BOON TO ECONOMY’ By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz @joveemarie
S EXPLAINER »B4
W.H.O. SAYS COVID EMERGENCY IS OVER. SO WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?
PEAKER Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez on Sunday said the decision of the World Health Organization (WHO) to lift its Covid-19 global health emergency declaration will pave the way for more Philippines economic activities. Romualdez welcomed the WHO decision, even as another lawmaker said it should prompt local authorities to finally lift the entry restrictions on international travelers who must first
comply with the tedious eTravel registration requirement that was earlier part of Covid-related health protocols. Romualdez said the lifting of the global health emergency “should pave the way for us to sustain our economic growth or even take the economy to a higher growth path for the benefit of our people, especially the poor.” It should translate, he added, “to increased mobility, more economic activities and therefore additional job and income opportunities for our workers and their families.”
However, the House leader reminded the public “to wear a face mask when needed, wash your hands, isolate when sick, observe physical distancing, and get vaccinated” to avoid Covid-19. The Speaker also urged the Department of Health (DOH) and the government’s InterAgency Task Force (IATF) managing the country’s response to the pandemic to prescribe minimum hea lt h protocols consistent with the WHO decision to scuttle its global health emergency declaration. See “Covid,” A2
HE country’s net oil imports surged to $19.02 billion in 2022, up by 64.4 percent from $11.57 billion a year ago mainly on account of high crude prices and increasing fuel demand, data from the Department of Energy (DOE) stated. The net import bill is the difference between oil imports and exports. The total imports rose by 61.1 percent to $19.68 billion last year from $12.15 billion in the same period a year ago. This was attributed to high import cost of crude and finished petroleum products in 2022. The average dollar rate for December 2022, $54.50, vis-à-vis December 2021’s average rate of $49.28, contributed to a higher import bill, the DOE data showed. In terms of volume, total imports rose to 26.48 billion liters last year from 24.44 billion liters in 2021. Total import cost of crude oil amounted to $4.43 billion, 95 percent higher vis-à-vis last year’s $2.27 billion. This was made up of 77.4 percent finished petroleum products and 22.6 percent crude oil. For finished petroleum products import cost, there was a growth of 53.3 percent to $15.15 billion from $9.88 billion. The rise was due to higher import costs of finished products in 2022. Meanwhile, total export earnings dropped by 4.1 percent to $556.53 million from $580.1 million this year due to decreased volume of exported products during the period. The total petroleum product exports went up to 979 million liters last year from 814 million liters in 2021. The country, meanwhile, imported 6.89 billion liters of crude and 19.58 billion liters of finished petroleum products.
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 55.2010 n JAPAN 0.4112 n UK 69.4097 n HK 7.0343 n CHINA 7.9853 n SINGAPORE 41.5702 n AUSTRALIA 36.9405 n EU 60.8039 n KOREA 0.0418 n SAUDI ARABIA 14.7191 Source: BSP (May 5, 2023)