MONEY sent home by Filipinos abroad hit its highest monthly level on record in December, enabling the full-year tally to surpass the 2014 growth target set by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
Cash remittances which Filipinos coursed through banks jumped by 6.6% year-on-year to $2.317 billion in December -- the highest monthly level according to central bank data dating back to 1970.
The December result brought the 2014 tally up by 5.8% to $24.308 billion, higher than the $21.991 billion logged in 2013 and topping the upwardly revised 5.5% goal set by the BSP in November last year.
“Strong demand for skilled Filipino manpower contributed to the steady growth of remittances,” the central bank said in a statement.
Cash remittances from land-based workers made up the bulk at $18.7 billion, while those from sea-borne workers totaled $5.6 billion.
Major sources of cash remittances were the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the United Kingdom, Singapore, Japan, Canada, and Hong Kong.
Citing Philippine Overseas Employment Administration data, the BSP said a total of 1.6 million Filipinos were deployed overseas last year.
At the same time, approved job orders from January to December stood at 878,609, up 10% from 2013.
About 43.6% were intended for service, production, and professional, technical and related workears in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Taiwan, and Qatar, the BSP noted.
The BSP said that cash remittances accounted for 8.5% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2014.
After achieving stellar economic growth of 6.8% in 2012 and 7.2% in 2013, the Philippine economy slowed to 6.1% in 2014, a few points shy of the government’s 6.5-7.5% target.
Crawling farm sector output and lower-than-programmed -- and at times even contracting -- state spending had weighed on GDP growth for much of last year. -- Daryll Edisonn D. Saclag
source: Businessworld
16 February 2015
11 February 2015
Government to spend P162.1 million for industry surveys this year
The national government will be spending P162.1 million to conduct three industry surveys this year, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
The PSA said the industry survey that will take the lion’s share of the amount is the 2014 Annual Survey of Philippine Business and Industry (ASPBI) which will require P149.3 million to conduct. The government said the cost for the ASPBI translates to a spending of P4,976.67 per establishment to be surveyed.
“[The cost will] cover expenses for training, field operations and data processing, as well as printing of questionnaires, publications and other survey materials,” the PSA said.
The ASPBI is a regular survey designated to be conducted on a yearly basis, except during the years when the Census of Philippine Business and Industry (CPBI) is conducted. The CPBI is conducted every 10 years.
The ASPBI said the survey will be undertaken from April to May 2015, covering 30,000 business establishments engaged in various economic activities.
These economic activities include agriculture forestry and fishing; manufacturing, mining and quarrying; electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply; and construction, among others.
“Press releases of the results and tables of the ASPBI shall be issued by the PSA during the period February 2016 to June 2016,” the PSA said.
Meanwhile, the other two surveys are the 2015 Monthly Integrated Survey of Selected Industries (Missi) costing P9.1 million and the 2015 Producer Price Survey (PPS) worth P3.7 million. The Missi is a regular survey conducted every month to provide planners and policy-makers in both public and private sectors with timely flash indicators on the performance of growth-oriented industries in the manufacturing sector.
These indicators include the Value of Production Index, Volume of Production Index, growth rates of value and volume of net sales, and average capacity utilization rate.
The Missi collects data on employment, compensation, value of production, revenue/sales, inventories and capacity utilization of the establishment.
The conduct of the 2015 Missi covers 1,100 establishments with total employment size of 20 and over. Data collection will be employed every 10th to 20th day of each month after the reference month.
The PPS, on the other hand, is also a survey conducted monthly to collect producer price data of manufactured commodities for the generation of the Producer Price Index, which measures the average monthly and yearly changes in the prices received by domestic producers in the manufacturing industry.
The survey will be administered to 1,100 establishments with recorded total employment size of 20 and over. PPS questionnaires are distributed to establishments every 10th to 25th of each month after the reference month.
Press releases on the PPI are scheduled to be published every 35th day after the reference month. An annual publication containing results of the MISSI and PPS will be issued on September 2016.
source: Business Mirror
January-November FDI inflows up 61.6% to $5.7 billion
Foreign direct investments (FDI) from January to November 2014 amounted to $5.7 billion, higher by 61.6 percent compared to the net FDI inflows for the same period in 2013.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported that for the month of November alone, FDI inflows amounted to $399 million, up from only $297 million in November 2013.
This is mostly due to a surge in net equity capital investments in November 2014, which increased by more than 28 times to $201 million, from only $7 million in net equity capital investments in November 2013.
This net equity capital investments in November was channeled to the financial and insurance sector, manufacturing, real-estate, transportation and storage, and wholesale and retail trade activities. The funds came mostly from the United States, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and Australia.
The BSP said, from January to November, the net inflows of FDI came from sustained lending by foreign parent companies to their local subsidiaries or affiliates to support existing operations in the Philippines or fund-expansion projects.
“Net equity capital investments surged by 114.8 percent to $1.6 billion from $723 million, mainly on account of the contraction in equity capital withdrawals [by 71 percent] which more than offset the 15.6-percent decline in equity capital placements,” the BSP said.
The BSP added that the increase in net inflows of FDI and the high net capital inflow in November “reflected investors’ confidence in the Philippine economy on the back of sound macroeconomic fundamentals and strong growth prospects.”
Meanwhile, reinvestments of earnings and investments in debt instruments posted positive balances from January to November 2014, although lower than what were recorded during comparable periods in 2013. Specifically, investments in debt instruments contracted by 37.1 percent, while reinvestment of earnings declined by 9.4 percent.
source: Business Mirror
02 February 2015
Yields on gov’t debt steady ahead of Jan. inflation data
DESPITE better-than-expected numbers on Philippine economic growth for 2014, yields on government securities barely moved last week as market players preferred to stay on the sidelines in anticipation of January inflation data.
Bond yields climbed by a few 6.53 basis points (bps) on the average week-on-week, according to data from the Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp. as of Jan. 30.
“Yields this week were more sideways ahead of the inflation data,” said Jonathan L. Ravelas, BDO Unibank, Inc.’s chief market strategist. “The market players are playing defensive.”
Nicholas Antonio T. Mapa, chief market strategist at the Bank of the Philippine Islands’ (BPI) Financial Markets Group, said: “Local GS (government securities) yields saw directional trading throughout the week as buying pressure continues to be on the back of bond-friendly developments with inflation forecasts released for January, still pointing to very low levels of inflation.”
“Markets had anticipated GDP (gross domestic product) falling short of 6% but the above 6% print forced some profit-taking motives,” he added. “However, despite the sell-offs seen, bargain hunters were quick to come to the fore with US Treasury yields seeing a raucous session, falling as much as 10 bps in reaction to increasing crude oil stockpiles and lower global growth expectations.”
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Amando M. Tetangco, Jr. last week said that inflation in January could have settled within 1.8-2.7% with the “continued easing of price pressures.” Official data is set for release by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Philippine GDP grew by 6.1% last year, according to the PSA, exceeding market expectations as the fourth quarter gave better results of 6.9%, up from the previous quarter’s 5.3%.
At the secondary debt market last Friday, the yield of the 20-year Treasury bond (T-bond) surged the most by 67.64 bps to 5.1764%, offsetting the decreases fetched by most papers.
It was followed by the 91- and 182-day treasury bills (T-bills) as their yields rose by 23.19 bps and 21.11 bps to 2.1819% and 2.5111%, respectively. The two-year bond also yielded 15.89 bps to 2.5682%.
On the other hand, the yields of the three-, four-, five-, seven-, and 10-year bonds slid by 14.73 bps, 6.84 bps, 10.21 bps, 1.13 bps and 19.52 bps to 2.9027%, 2.9579%, 2.9943%, 3.3637% and 3.1637%, respectively.
The 364-day T-bill was also down by 10.08 bps to fetch 2.2242%.
Citing expectations of easing inflation due to falling prices of commodities including crude oil, BDO’s Mr. Ravelas said: “The outlook for interest rates is sideways to down.”
Meanwhile, for BPI’s Mr. Mapa: “Expect much of the same although comments from the BSP indicating that the central bank has scope to keep interest rates steady will help fuel the rally further.”
“Markets will look to US GDP later in the session given that the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) appeared more hawkish than anticipated, a development that could sap the rally’s enthusiasm about fixed income,” Mr. Mapa added. -- Jochebed B. Gonzales
source: Businessworld
Bond yields climbed by a few 6.53 basis points (bps) on the average week-on-week, according to data from the Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp. as of Jan. 30.
“Yields this week were more sideways ahead of the inflation data,” said Jonathan L. Ravelas, BDO Unibank, Inc.’s chief market strategist. “The market players are playing defensive.”
Nicholas Antonio T. Mapa, chief market strategist at the Bank of the Philippine Islands’ (BPI) Financial Markets Group, said: “Local GS (government securities) yields saw directional trading throughout the week as buying pressure continues to be on the back of bond-friendly developments with inflation forecasts released for January, still pointing to very low levels of inflation.”
“Markets had anticipated GDP (gross domestic product) falling short of 6% but the above 6% print forced some profit-taking motives,” he added. “However, despite the sell-offs seen, bargain hunters were quick to come to the fore with US Treasury yields seeing a raucous session, falling as much as 10 bps in reaction to increasing crude oil stockpiles and lower global growth expectations.”
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Amando M. Tetangco, Jr. last week said that inflation in January could have settled within 1.8-2.7% with the “continued easing of price pressures.” Official data is set for release by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Philippine GDP grew by 6.1% last year, according to the PSA, exceeding market expectations as the fourth quarter gave better results of 6.9%, up from the previous quarter’s 5.3%.
At the secondary debt market last Friday, the yield of the 20-year Treasury bond (T-bond) surged the most by 67.64 bps to 5.1764%, offsetting the decreases fetched by most papers.
It was followed by the 91- and 182-day treasury bills (T-bills) as their yields rose by 23.19 bps and 21.11 bps to 2.1819% and 2.5111%, respectively. The two-year bond also yielded 15.89 bps to 2.5682%.
On the other hand, the yields of the three-, four-, five-, seven-, and 10-year bonds slid by 14.73 bps, 6.84 bps, 10.21 bps, 1.13 bps and 19.52 bps to 2.9027%, 2.9579%, 2.9943%, 3.3637% and 3.1637%, respectively.
The 364-day T-bill was also down by 10.08 bps to fetch 2.2242%.
Citing expectations of easing inflation due to falling prices of commodities including crude oil, BDO’s Mr. Ravelas said: “The outlook for interest rates is sideways to down.”
Meanwhile, for BPI’s Mr. Mapa: “Expect much of the same although comments from the BSP indicating that the central bank has scope to keep interest rates steady will help fuel the rally further.”
“Markets will look to US GDP later in the session given that the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) appeared more hawkish than anticipated, a development that could sap the rally’s enthusiasm about fixed income,” Mr. Mapa added. -- Jochebed B. Gonzales
source: Businessworld
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