BizNews Brief

Funds Placed at the SDA Accounts Up from Last Month

Posted December 6, 2011. Filed under BizNews Brief.

Financial Sector:

  • Bad loans in relation to total loans of UKBs inched up a bit to 2.55% from 2.52% a month ago.
  • Funds placed at the SDA accounts in the Central Bank were up from last month by 0.71% to P1.706 trillion as of the 3rd week of October.

Fiscal Sector:

  • Congress resumed session today and planned to pass the P1.816 trillion before Christmas.
  • Manageable inflation expectations as well as high market liquidity may push down the Treasury Bill rates.

Labor Sector:

  • The latest CPI for Region 12 is up to 4.6% in October from 4.3% in September. The minimum wage for the region is about P234-P360.

Other Sector:

  • As of the third quarter, about 52% or about 10.4 million Filipinos considered themselves poor from 49% the previous quarter because of the food crisis caused by the typhoon.

Demand Side

Consumption: Petron Corp. has raised their premium gasoline prices by P0.65 per liter, regular gasoline by P0.90 per liter, and diesel by P1.90 per liter.

Investment: The local affiliate of Canadian miner TVI Pacific with total revenue of P112 million per year is looking at extending the life of its metal reserve by four more years despite recent ordinance banning open pit mining.

Export: Nutiva, which is a US-based organic food, is looking to increase its volume of orders for coconut oil from the Philippines by 40% next year.

Supply Side

Agriculture: Farm output went up by 4.28% in the first 9 months of the year from 2.81% in the same period last year because of improved palay and corn harvests.

Industry: The prices of renewable energy are expected to drop radically and are likely to compete with existing conventional sources like wind turbines which are near maturity and are already at par with coal-fired power plants in terms of capital costs.

Services: Domestic commercial flights’ number of passengers went up by 14% to 14.03 million in the first 9 months of the year according to the Civil Aeronautics Board. PAL posted a 16% decrease in its domestic passengers, Cebu Pacific posted a 3% increase, Air Philippines expected a 150% increase and Zest Air saw a 75% increase.

International Update

The Americas: The US economy is seen to grow at least 3% for the fourth quarter due to the pessimism of the consumers as they try to cut their debt and caution by businesses. Also, the haul that can be attributed to the US fiscal policy could bring down growth by 1.5 to 2% next year.

Europe: If policy makers will agree on a plan to stem debt crisis, China and the US may help Europe through the IMF to increase the size of the rescue fund to US$1 trillion.

Asia and the Pacific: China’s average house inflation in October dropped to 2.8% from that in the same period last year signifying that Beijing won its war against inflation and that the downward correction in home prices has already started.