With SO2 shipment due, sugar prices to decline By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas
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THE WORLD ›› A12
UN WARNS GLOBAL LEADERS: THE WORLD IS IN ‘GREAT PERIL’
ILIPINO consumers may soon see retail prices of refined sugar stabilizing in the market as shipments under the 150,000-metric ton (MT) importation program start to arrive as early as next month. Sugar Regulator y Administration (SR A) chief David John Thaddeus P. Alba said refined sugar imports under Sugar Order (SO) 2 will start arriving in a month’s time.
Alba said they will soon approve the import allocation of sugar for all eligible and qualified sugar traders and importers under SO 2. Alba added that the 150,000 MT import volume has been fully subscribed. “In a month’s time, it’s going to start coming in. We have received a lot of applications already and we are just trying to prorate everything but we have the traders already,” he said in a press conference in Makati on Tuesday. Last week, the SR A board, chaired by President Ferdinand R.
Marcos Jr. as concurrent agriculture secretary, issued SO 2 that greenlighted the importation of 150,000 MT of refined sugar to “ensure” domestic supply and “manage” sugar prices. Marcos signed the document himself together with other members of the SRA board. (Related story: https://businessmirror. com.ph/2022/09/14/pbbm-oksimportation-of-150000-mt-ofsugar/) Under SO 2, the refined sugar imports must enter the country no later than November 15, so as not to affect local sugar refining
operations. Furthermore, Alba did recognize that Coca-Cola might require “more” premium bottlers’ grade refined sugar than what was approved under SO 2. However, he pointed out that the 150,000-MT refined sugar import volume was based on historical withdrawals that ranged between 70,000 MT and 80,000 MT every month. “We cannot really get the right figures. We can only base it on See “SO2,” A2
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Wednesday, September 21, 2022 Vol. 17 No. 348
AT NYSE, PBBM CITES PHL DATA, SOUND POLICIES S n
By Samuel P. Medenilla
2023 GAB to create jobs, cut poverty –sponsors
@sam_medenilla
OUND economic policies backed by promising macroeconomic indicators became the highlight of the investment pitch of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. before a Business Forum at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) last Monday.
In h is 10 -m i nute ke y note speech in the event, Marcos urged American businesses to help in “transforming” the pandemicaffected economy by investmenting in key local sectors. “The Philippines offers highquality labor, a large consumer market, and a wide range of fiscal
and non-fiscal incentives. At the same time, we remain committed to maintaining sound macroeconomic fundamentals providing a clear development roadmap,” Marcos said. Among the sectors which he See “NYSE,” A2
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By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz
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PRESIDENT Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. speaks at the Business Forum at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Monday, the second of his six-day visit to the United States. He touted the Philippines’s “high-quality labor, a large consumer market, and a wide range of fiscal and non-fiscal incentives.” His administration is committed “to maintaining sound macroeconomic fundamentals providing a clear development roadmap,” Marcos said. TROI SANTOS
@joveemarie
S the plenary deliberations on the proposed P5.268-trillion national budget for 2023 started, sponsors of the 2023 General Appropriations Bill on Tuesday said next year’s budget is the first step in fulfilling the visions of the Medium Term Fiscal Framework (MTFF) to create more jobs and reduce poverty. See “Budget,” A2
GOVT HEALTH SPEND MUST RISE TO CUT ‘OOP’ SHARE By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario
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HE level of health spending in response to Covid-19 should be maintained and used as a new base in the coming years to continue the reduction in Filipinos’ out-of-pocket expenses for their medical needs, according to an expert from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). In a presentation at the Development Policy Research Month (DPRM) forum of the Phi lippine Institute of Deve lopment St ud ies ( PI DS), ADB Southeast Asia Principal Health Specialist Eduardo
P. Banzon said government health spending saw a “dramatic increase” to 28 percent in 2020. While public spending on health has been rising since 2016, the rate of increase has never breached 20 percent. Prior to the rate of increase in 2020, the public health spending posted the highest increase in 2018 at 18 percent. “So part of the challenge that we have to do now is to make sure that this increase in spending that the government has provided for health should not go down. And really, it should become sort of a new
base,” Banzon said. The significant increase in health spending in 2020, Banzon said, could explain the slowdown in the increase in Household Out of Pocket (OOP) Expenditure to 3.6 percent in 2020. Prior to 2020, based on the Current Health Expenditures (CHE) data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), OOP grew 6 percent in 2019; 6.3 percent in 2018; and 7.9 percent in 2017. Based on the data, Banzon noted, CHE posted a 12.6-percent increase to P895.88 billion in 2020. He noted that this was also the fastest growth
since 2014. Given this, the composition of the CHE in 2020 was 45.7 percent accounted for by government schemes and compulsory contributory health care financing schemes and 44.7 percent OOP. The remaining 9.6 percent was composed of voluntar y health-care payment schemes such as health maintenance organization (HMO) and health insurance. “If the government spends more money for health using tax revenues, using compulsory contributions, that might See “ADB,” A2
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 57.3630 n JAPAN 0.4005 n UK 65.6118 n HK 7.3085 n CHINA 8.1891 n SINGAPORE 40.7611 n AUSTRALIA 38.5881 n EU 57.5294 n KOREA 0.0413 n SAUDI ARABIA 15.2602 Source: BSP (20 September 2022)