Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:12 AM March 19, 2021
The local stock barometer firmed up on Thursday, tracking mostly buoyant regional markets as investors welcomed signals by the US Federal Reserve that monetary stimulus would remain in place.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) added 64.02 points, or 0.98 percent, to close at 6,630.85. Investors are banking on sustained US stimulus amid a stronger US economic outlook and an expected surge in inflation.
2-percent rise
At the local market, the financial and property counters both rose by over 2 percent, while the mining/oil counter added 1.58 percent.
The industrial and services counters rose by less than 1 percent.
On the other hand, the holding firm counter slipped by 0.06 percent.
Value turnover for the day amounted to P8.85 billion. Domestic hands kept the market afloat as foreign investors were net sellers to the tune of P808.82 million.
Advancers overwhelmed decliners, 149 to 64, while 41 stocks were unchanged.
Boosted
The PSEi was boosted by the gains of grocery chain operator Puregold, which rose by 5.23 percent, while property giant SM Prime gained 3.71 percent.
BPI, BDO and Bloomberry all gained over 2 percent.
Universal Robina Corp. added 1.2 percent, while Ayala Land, Jollibee and JG Summit all rose by less than 1 percent.
Outside the PSEi, notable gainers included Leisure & Resorts World Corp. and Abacore, which surged by 6.34 percent and 4.85 percent, respectively.
On the other hand, SM Investments and PLDT fell by over 1 percent, while ICTSI and Ayala Corp. mostly slipped.
Notable decliners outside the PSEi included Prime Media, which slid by 23 percent, while Basic Energy lost 3.7 percent.
—Doris Dumlao-Abadilla
By: Daxim L. Lucas – Reporter / @daxinqInquirer Business / 03:56 PM March 19, 2021
MANILA, Philippines – Agriculture, fisheries, and agrarian reform sectors in the country are expected to gain improved access to financing now that regulators have broadened how banks can meet mandated lending requirements for these activities.
In a statement, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said that, along with the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Agrarian Reform, it had approved amendments to the implementing rules and regulations of the Agri-Agra Reform Credit Act of 2009.
The central bank explained that this would make it easier for banks to comply with the directed lending aspect of the law, which requires banks to allocate at least 25 percent of their total loan portfolios to the agricultural and fisheries sectors, of which 10 percent will be further directed to agrarian reform undertakings.
The regulator said local banks opt to pay, on average, a total of P2 billion in penalties annually rather than comply with these provisions because borrowers are perceived to be high risk.
“The amendments to the Agri-Agra rules are the product of the concerted efforts of the DA, DAR and the BSP to mobilize bank sector financing towards the agrarian reform, fisheries, and agricultural sector by addressing challenges identified in the operationalization of the law, BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno said.
“It is a timely and positive development since it will assist this sector to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and other natural calamities,” he added.
The amendments will broaden access of the agrarian reform sector to bank financing, streamline banks’ process of investing in agri-agra eligible securities, and promote innovative financing solutions within the law’s legal ambit.
The amendments expand the eligible modes of compliance with the 10 percent agrarian reform credit requirement by including loans to members of agrarian reform households and financing of activities that shall generally benefit agrarian reform beneficiaries or their households as well as agrarian reform communities.
It also removes the accreditation requirement for debt securities to be considered as agri-agra eligible.
The new rules also allow investments in stock shares of companies that are primarily engaged in eligible agricultural activities as an eligible mode of alternative compliance.
Finally, it also promotes special lending arrangements that consider agricultural borrowers’ requirements, such as agricultural value chain financing.
The amended rules are only an interim measure pending the passage of the proposed amendments to the Agri-Agra Law, the central bank said.
The BSP is currently pushing to enact comprehensive amendments to the Agri-Agra, Law, which recommends a financing approach that considers broader agricultural ecosystem’s requirements.
INQUIRER.net BrandRoom / 03:36 PM March 09, 2021
In celebration of the International Women’s month, the blockchain-powered Smart Asset Managers (SAM) is offering its various platforms in both conventional and non-conventional business models to empower women by developing their entrepreneurial experience.
SAM Digital Technology Founding Chairman Rommel Santos said one of the main goals of SAM is to make the general community aware of the SAM Women Empowerment Program by unleashing their potential within. Unfortunately, he said, most often the entrepreneurial skills of most individuals are ignored “because they lack self-esteem, personality and confidence. “
Santos stated, “Thru the SAM Advocacy, we believe these lacking methodologies can be learned and this is what exactly we are going to do. However, this cannot be done without a systematic collaborative and collective talent approaches and contributions from the professional industry. Most of the time they can come but at a high price.”
Santos is a Filipino-New Zealander based in Australia.
One of the women entrepreneurs empowered by SAM DT is Eloisa Francesca Figueroa, a Filipina flight attendant who is based in Saudi Arabia. She said her experience working overseas has shown her some of the challenging difficulties faced by people working overseas, with some of them almost impossible to change.
However, she believes that through entrepreneurial learning system, women could be empowered “and we can make a change, a plan for the future and not just for ourselves but our entire ecosystem as a whole. Only then we can prove to ourselves that change is possible if we will commit to change.”
Santos explained that SAM’s basic approach is encouraging education that promotes sustainability and financial stability. This advocacy program of the company is seen “as work in progress” to benefit thousands of women who will enrol in the program and looking to mento hundreds of thousands more in a global scale.
Professional blogger Cindy P. Dominguez added that women empowerment is a process, while stating that breaking free the stereotype where women are dependent on men requires small steps “to do something for yourself, without needing to ask anyone permission.”
“A woman has her own mind and can decide what food to buy, what food to serve, what bills are to be paid, how to do most things at home.” Dominguez said and added, “she can also decide and has the right to decide on how to make the pooled family funds get to earn.”
Smart Asset Managers provide women with a financial decision that follows the rules of putting aside what you can afford. To subscribe is at only a thou, and for your Ipon Challenge, a SAMKoin may be purchased for one USDT which cost only about 50 pesos, and you can buy just one SAMKoin cryptocurrency, and keep on buying one whenever you can save that 50 pesos for your future. It does not cost a lot, and instead of buying a new pair of shoes, you can use it to be part of the empowering women’s community of Smart Asset Managers.
For her part, Dianne Yabut-Luna, CEO of wellness clinic Integrated Laser and Complementary Medicine (ILACAM) which recently partnered with SAM, pointed out that the wellness industry has manifested a considerable growth during the last 25years and it has become the primary contributor to the nation’s economic progress because it is considered now as a necessity.
Luna encourages every woman who is interested in the medical field or those who wanted to earn extra money using only their “entrepreneurial attitude and drive to succeed,” to join their team.
Commenting on the lingering COVID-19 disease, Santos said the global pandemic offers unprecedented opportunities for women as Santos expects the digital lifestyle to ride a robust tide in the months ahead.
“The potential of the digital technologies right now is actually 10 years ahead of the conventional technology that has long been in place. So, I think, people need to look at the digital side of everything,” Santos said. “What I suggest is that they enhance the digital services that they are offering to people. Because, right now, it’s about adaptation.”
ADVT
By: Ben O. de Vera – Reporter / @bendeveraINQPhilippine Daily Inquirer / 04:07 AM March 01, 2021
Cash remittance flows to the Philippines would again buck the projected prolonged global downtrend this year and grow by as much as 7 percent to support a rebound in household spending, financial giant Morgan Stanley said.
In a Feb. 22 report titled “Why remittances will be better than expected,” Morgan Stanley Research said the revert to growth in 2021 would not only “drive a recovery in household discretionary spending and support the current account to stay in balanced position” but also support the Philippine peso as well as domestic banking, consumer, and property sectors.
Morgan Stanley noted that while most forecasts last year projected a sharp drop in remittances, actual flows held up better than expected as cash sent back home by Filipinos working and living abroad reached $29.9 billion in 2020, only 0.8-percent lower than the record $30.1 billion in 2019.
“For some OFWs (overseas Filipino workers), access to social assistance offered by host-economies likely helped, while OFWs in Asia were likely less affected by lockdown restrictions. Moreover, altruistic motives and border closures likely led OFWs to remit more money home through formal channels. Finally, a sizable portion of OFWs are working as domestic helpers/health-care workers who remain in demand amid the pandemic, which helps to provide downside protection,” Morgan Stanley explained.
Growth rebound
For 2021, “to the extent that remittances correlate with global cycles, we think the V-shape global recovery will help drive Philippines’ remittances growth to rebound,” it said.
“Moreover, the oil price recovery bodes well for remittances from the Middle East to see a bounce back. Meanwhile, as vaccination programs get ramped up, more business sectors are likely to reopen and border restrictions on migrant workers, including OFWs, are likely to be relaxed, leading OFW deployment to pick up,” it added.
Morgan Stanley said the remittance rebound this year would benefit big-ticket purchases like housing.
Citing Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas data, it noted that the share of OFW households that set aside the remittances they received to buy a house fell to 4.8 percent during the fourth quarter of 2020 amid a prolonged pandemic-induced recession, from 13.6 percent in the first quarter of last year or before COVID-19 wreaked havoc on the global and domestic economies. INQ
Read more: https://business.inquirer.net/318674/ofw-remittances-to-grow-7-in-2021#ixzz6nxXLywSw
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Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:18 AM February 12, 2021
Long-term investments continued to come into the country at lower numbers as of the first 11 months of last year as the economic uncertainty caused by coronavirus pandemic dampened businesses’ expansion plans, data from the central bank showed.
In a statement, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said foreign direct investments posted net inflows of $537 million in November 2020, representing a contraction by 16.5 percent from the $643 million in net inflows registered in November 2019.
The regulator said this decline was slower compared to the 24.5 percent contraction posted in October 2020 amid news of positive developments in vaccines against the virus.
“Recent contractions in net FDI (foreign direct investment) inflows were largely affected by concerns over the resurgence of COVID-19 cases and reimposition of quarantine measures in some advanced and emerging markets,” it said.
Nonresidents’ net investments in equity capital declined by 57.3 percent to $66 million in November 2020 from $155 million in the comparable period in 2019.
This resulted as equity capital placements declined by 44.8 percent to $96 million from $174 million, coupled with a 57.3 percent increase in equity capital withdrawals to $30 million from $19 million.
Equity capital placements came mainly from the Netherlands, Japan and the United States. These were invested mostly in the financial and insurance; real estate; and manufacturing industries.
The drop in foreign direct investment net inflows was partially mitigated by the increase in nonresidents’ net investments in debt instruments, which grew by 3.8 percent to $415 million from $400 million in the same period in 2019.
Reinvestment of earnings, however, fell by 36.5 percent to $56 million from $88 million in November 2019.
On a cumulative basis, foreign direct investment net inflows for the January–November 2020 period reached $5.8 billion, or 10.8 percent lower than the $6.5 billion net inflows recorded in the comparable period in 2019.
By component, nonresidents’ net investments in debt instruments dropped by 19.3 percent to $3.8 billion from $4.7 billion. Reinvestment of earnings contracted by 21.9 percent to $760 million from $974 million.
By contrast, nonresidents’ net investments in equity capital expanded by 48.6 percent to $1.3 billion from $851 million, which partly eased the decline in the cumulative foreign direct investment net inflows.
Equity capital placements grew modestly by 0.5 percent to $1.53 billion from $1.52 billion, while withdrawals declined by 60.4 percent to $265 million from $671 million.
Equity capital placements during the period emanated largely from Japan, the Netherlands, the United States and Singapore. These were invested mostly in the manufacturing, real estate, and financial and insurance industries. — Daxim L. Lucas
Read more: https://business.inquirer.net/317586/11-month-net-foreign-direct-investment-inflows-down-10-8#ixzz6mDNeK09j
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By: Ben O. de Vera – Reporter / @bendeveraINQPhilippine Daily Inquirer
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) expects the Philippines to post a slower-than-targeted economic growth of 5.9 percent in 2021 following a record recession last year.
Photo by Denniz Futalan from Pexels
The OECD’s growth forecast in its Economic Outlook for Southeast Asia, China and India 2021 report released on Thursday was below the projection of 6.2 percent it made in November last year as well as the government’s 6.5-7.5 percent goal.
The OECD, an association of 37 high-income nations, earlier projected real gross domestic product (GDP) in the Philippines to have fallen by 9 percent in 2020. Government data showed actual contraction was at 9.5 percent—the worst post-war and the fastest drop in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
“Public investment and net exports are expected to support a partial economic recovery in 2021 (of 5.9-percent growth), although rising debt costs, declining remittances and the capacity of the government to service debt remain major downside risks to the outlook,” the OECD said.
It did not help that “while the lockdown measures imposed in the Philippines appear to be the strictest in the Asean region, latest data suggest that the virus continues to spread in the country, albeit at a slower pace.”
Based on the OECD’s estimates, the total amount of fiscal package put in place by the Philippines to fight the health and socioeconomic ills inflicted by COVID-19 stood at 3.5 percent of GDP, eclipsed in the region by Singapore’s 14.4 percent, Thailand’s 8.6 percent, Malaysia’s 6.9 percent, Vietnam’s 5.3 percent, and Indonesia’s 3.8 percent.
The OECD enjoined the Philippines to take advantage of digitalization to quickly bounce back from last year’s slump.
“Use of digital technologies in the Philippines has increased during the COVID-19 crisis, helping individuals, businesses and the government to cope with physical distancing measures. Around 17 percent of Philippine companies with digital transformation projects reported that the crisis pushed them to start implementing the projects,” the OECD said, citing a Grant Thornton report.
But the OECD said “technology adoption in the manufacturing sector is relatively slower than in the services sector,” which included the information technology and business process outsourcing (BPO) industry—the second biggest globally next to India’s and one of the Philippines’ largest dollar earners.
“BPO firms in the Philippines are shifting toward more specialized BPOs, such as cover-fraud analytics, data integration, project management, R&D (research and development), merger and acquisitions valuation and product profitability analysis,” OECD said. Skills upgrading was paramount, it added.
Citing an International Telecommunication Union report, the OECD also lamented the Philippines trailed far behind other emerging Asian economies in digital connectivity, with only 17.7 percent of homes connected to the internet in 2019.
ABS-CBN News
MANILA — Business processing outsourcing (BPO) firms and the government topped the list of active hiring industries at the start of 2021, job portal JobStreet has revealed.
Citing the portal’s database, JobStreet said 23 percent of the companies actively recruiting this month came from call centers and internet-technology (IT) enabled services like BPOs, followed by government and defense with 21 percent.
BPO firms and the government were also the top industries hiring in September last year, as lockdown restrictions eased due to the pandemic.
Human resources management (12 percent), education (9 percent), and computer software firms (5 percent) placed third, fourth, and fifth, respectively.
The job platform said job postings have recovered as the economy gradually reopens despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
JobStreet added that recruitment rose by 3 percent since the lockdown was imposed late March last year.
“In the past year, the total jobs in the market declined by 30 percent versus 2019, but JobStreet is hopeful that the job market will continue to recover, as companies are gradually hiring applicants,” said JobStreet country manager Philip Gioca.
The portal also pointed out that parts of Mindanao posted an increase of government career opportunities with over 18,000 career opportunities from Davao, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), and Northern Mindanao.
Industries that recorded growth, meanwhile, included the following:
The Civil Service Commission, in September last year, tapped the recruitment portal to open at least 10,000 nationwide job opportunities in a virtual career fair to jobseekers all around the Philippines.
JobStreet currently provides service to over 230,000 corporate hirers and more than 15 million people seeking jobs in its database, it said.
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