Philippines vs China: going bananas

Roel Landingin

Roel Landingin has been the FT's Manila correspondent since 2001. He was business editor of an English-language newspaper in the Philippines and Manila bureau chief of Bloomberg News.

Philippines vs China: going bananas

May 11, 2012 9:16 am by Roel Landingin

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The month-long impasse between Chinese and Philippine ships in a disputed area in the South China Sea has many unforeseen consequences. Now, the standoff over rich fishing grounds could potentially deprive wealthy Chinese consumers of the tasty but pricey Philippine bananas that used to be exported mainly to Japan. Continue reading »

Tags: diplomacy, trade dispute Posted in Asia, China, Philippines | Permalink

Manila: rates cut as stocks hit high

March 1, 2012 11:53 am by Roel Landingin

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The Philippines on Thursday cut its main policy rate by 25 basis points for the second time in less than two months in line with expectations. The move that could give a boost to what could be the beginning of a domestic credit and investment boom.

Hours before the central bank announced the reduction in the overnight borrowing rate to a record low of four per cent, the Philippine Stock Exchange index surged past the 5,000 level for the first time and closed 0.84 per cent up at a new all-time high of 4,897.65 – around 1,000 points above its pre-2008 high. That’s confidence, even allowing for the global surge in emerging market equities. Continue reading »

Tags: equities, monetary policy Posted in Philippines | Permalink

December exodus a lift for Philippines

February 2, 2012 3:56 am by Roel Landingin

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It may have looked like a big rush for the last plane out of Manila’s international airport.

The number of Filipinos leaving for foreign jobs surged by 47.8 per cent on the year in December and 17.3 per cent in November after the government finally allowed deployment to many Middle East and North African countries gripped by violent political conflict, according to officials of the National Statistical Coordination Board. Continue reading »

Tags: migration Posted in Philippines | Permalink

Philippines: another EM rate cut

January 19, 2012 3:36 pm by Roel Landingin

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Another interest rate cut, this time in the Philippines, highlights the rapid switch that emerging market central banks are making from fighting inflation to promoting growth.

The monetary authorities made their first cuts since 2009 – reducing by a quarter of a percentage point the rate on overnight deposits to 4.25 per cent and on overnight loans to 6.25 per cent. The central bank left the reserve requirement for banks at 21 per cent. Continue reading »

Tags: monetary policy Posted in Philippines | Permalink

Rice self sufficiency in the Philippines – still on the road map?

November 17, 2011 11:39 am by Roel Landingin

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The Philippines may have to import more rice next year than it originally planned after government estimates released this week showed the country will likely miss its 2011 production targets for the staple food that most Filipinos eat three times a day. Continue reading »

Tags: commodities, food prices, rice Posted in Asia, Philippines | Permalink

Eurozone crisis hits Philippines IPOs

November 14, 2011 5:18 am by Roel Landingin

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As an astute buyer of companies, the Philippines’ San Miguel Corp (SMC:PHS) has considered crisis its constant companion, counting on it to create acquisition opportunities in an ambitious bid to diversify from its core food and drinks business.

Now, it is finding that crisis can also be a fickle friend that might block opportunities for selling and taking profit. Continue reading »

Tags: IPOs Posted in Philippines | Permalink

Philippines: changing tracks with China

November 4, 2011 9:01 am by Roel Landingin

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A stalled infrastructure project backed by China is rarely a good thing. But the Philippines’ North Luzon railway could be one of the few exceptions – if it can be repurposed into a high-speed airport link. Continue reading »

Tags: infrastructure Posted in Asia, Philippines | Permalink

Philippine mobile: a two-horse race

October 26, 2011 2:35 pm by Roel Landingin

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Those with fast fingers in the world’s texting capital now have a choice of just two mobile providers after Philippines’ biggest ever M&A deal.

After a seven-month review, Philippine regulators cleared the takeover of Digital Telecommunications Philippines (Digitel) by the dominant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co (PLDT). The ruling will in effect hand PLDT control of 70 per cent of one of Asia’s most lucrative phone markets. The rest of the market is owned by rival Globe Telecom, giving rise to a wireless phone duopoly. Continue reading »

Tags: M&A, telecoms Posted in Asia, Philippines | Permalink

Philippines bondholders battle retro-tax

October 18, 2011 12:19 pm by Roel Landingin

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"Don’t be too creative"

Today is not a good day for some holders of Philippine domestic bonds. When owners of the first zero-coupon bond sold by the government ten years ago redeem the debt paper today, they will receive only 80 per cent of expected 25bn peso interest on the bond rather than the 100 per cent they were promised back then.

Disappointed is a mild way of describing how the bondholders feel. On October 7, with 11 days to go before the bond matured, the Philippine bureau of internal revenue issued a ruling that imposed a 20 per cent tax on the accumulated interest on the bond. When the bonds were sold 10 years ago, the tax authorities said they were exempt from that kind of tax. Continue reading »

Tags: bonds, tax Posted in Philippines | Permalink

Philippines: a stimulus of sorts

October 12, 2011 12:39 pm by Roel Landingin

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Philippine president Benigno Aquino III on Wednesday unveiled a 72bn peso ($1.7bn) economic stimulus package, aimed at shielding the country’s economy (which is dependent on remittances and electronics exports) from the global fallout from Europe’s sovereign debt and banking troubles.

However, economists don’t find Aquino’s fiscal package stimulating enough. In fact, they don’t consider it a real fiscal stimulus package at all. Continue reading »

Posted in Asia, Philippines | Permalink

Two ways to say “No” to Beijing

October 7, 2011 1:34 pm by Roel Landingin

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The presidents of Burma and the Philippines, Thein Sein and Benigno Aquino III, may not have a great deal in common but they share a predicament: how to get out of a soured infrastructure mega-deal with Chinese backing without unduly straining ties with Beijing. They have quite different approaches, too. Continue reading »

Tags: infrastructure Posted in Asia, Myanmar, Philippines | Permalink

Manila: paying for rail

September 30, 2011 2:27 pm by Roel Landingin

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Less than a year after Philippine president Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III launched an ambitious private-public partnership (PPP) programme hoping to tap investors to build key infrastructures quickly, his officials are shifting gears. Finding that private money is neither cheap nor readily available for some key projects, they are rediscovering the merits of official development assistance.

Two light rail systems due for upgrading in Manila, with a combined cost of $1.8bn, will now be likely built by the government itself. It will use low-cost and long-term loans from multilateral lenders or countries such as Japan or Korea, according to Manuel Roxas II, the transport and communications secretary. Continue reading »

Tags: infrastructure, public-private finance, transport Posted in Asia, Philippines | Permalink

Philippines: bad news for remittances

August 31, 2011 2:06 pm by Roel Landingin

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Benigno Aquino III, the popular Philippine president, should begin to worry about his country’s disappointing GDP growth of 3.4 per cent in the quarter ending June, among the lowest in the region. And it’s not just because the economy has progressively slowed down in the past four quarters that he’s been in power.

Rather, the Philippines is losing one of its main growth drivers: remittances from Filipino contractual workers abroad that boost domestic spending. Continue reading »

Tags: economy, GDP, remittances Posted in Asia, Philippines | Permalink

Corruption in the Philippines, and the cost of fighting it

May 30, 2011 10:30 am by Roel Landingin

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If there’s a cost to corruption, there’s also a price to pay for fighting it. That is one way of looking at why the Philippine economy grew by a modest 4.9 per cent in the first quarter from a year ago – at the lower end of the government’s target range of 4.8-5.8 per cent and below median analyst forecasts. Continue reading »

Posted in Asia, Philippines | Permalink

Philippines: fewer remittances

May 17, 2011 3:28 pm by Roel Landingin

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For a remittance-dependent economy like the Philippines, news that year-on-year growth in money sent home by Filipinos working overseas dropped to only 4.1 per cent in March, the lowest in 19 months, should be worrisome.

But that’s not the whole of it. The number of Filipinos leaving for jobs abroad fell by 3.8 per cent to only 380,188 in the first quarter from 395,189 in the same period a year ago, mainly because of the political troubles in the Middle East and North Africa. Manila imposed temporary bans on deployments to Libya, Bahrain, Yemen and Syria since conflict erupted in those countries earlier this year. Continue reading »

Tags: remittances Posted in Philippines | Permalink

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