RETURN TO ECQ CUTS PHL MANUFACTURING OUTPUT
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n Tuesday, May 4, 2021 Vol. 16 No. 202
P25.00 nationwide | 2 sections 18 pages |
FILIPINO migrant workers line up at the temporary testing center for Covid-19 in Hong Kong on Saturday, May 1, 2021. The government ordered foreign domestic helpers to take Covid-19 tests after two helpers were diagnosed with a more infectious strain of the virus. AP/KIN CHEUNG
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By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad @Tyronepiad
HE Philippine manufacturing sector’s output level shrank anew in April amid the resurgence of Covid-19 cases that forced the suspension of factory operations and dampened demand, IHS Markit reported.
The international think tank said on Monday the Philippines’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) declined to 49.0 in April from 52.2
the previous month, which indicates a “marginal contraction” in the local manufacturing industry’s operating conditions.
ADB: Asia Pacific to remain as world’s engine of growth By Cai U. Ordinario
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@caiordinario
HE Asian Development Bank (ADB) believes Asia and the Pacific will remain an engine of growth for the world and will continue to do so under a digital Asian Century. In a curtain raiser event for the 54th Asian Development Bank Board of Governor’s Meeting on Monday, ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa said the pandemic has fast-tracked digitalization in the region. To cope, the region must exert effort to reduce the digital divide by improving connectivity; lowering the cost of Internet services; and
enhancing the use of technology. “I firmly believe that this region of Asia Pacific will continuously be an engine for global growth, economic growth by overcoming many, many challenges we’re now facing,” Asakawa said. “In order to make our recovery and development paths more sustainable and inclusive, we need to reduce the digital divide.” Asakawa said around 50 percent of the global population does not have access to broadband connections. This has to change not only because of the need to recover from the current pandemic but also prepare for future pandemics.
This is the first time the headline index dropped below the 50 neutral level after three consecutive months of growth, IHS Market noted. A country’s PMI determines the health of its manufacturing sector and is calculated as a weighted average of five individual subcomponents. Readings below 50 show deterioration in the industry while readings above the 50 threshold signal growth in the manufacturing sector. “April sur vey data revealed a setback for the Filipino economy, with operating conditions falling back into contraction ter r itor y af ter on ly one f u l l quarter of growth,” IHS Market
Economist Shreeya Patel said. “ Tightening restrictions led to another round of factor y and business closures, with output particularly hard-hit.” The decline in employment figures also continued into the second quarter, she added. The National Capital Region (NCR) and nearby provinces, including Cavite, Laguna, Bulacan and Rizal—or NCR plus—were placed under the most restrictive enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) on March 29 to April 11 amid the recent surge in Covid-19 cases. NCR Plus is put under modified ECQ (MECQ) beginning April 12 until May 14. Continued on A2
PHL BANANAS LOSING OUT IN ASIA TO LAT-AM, ASEAN PRODUCERS By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas
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@jearcalas
HE Phi lippines, the world’s second top exporter of bananas, is losing market share for the prized yellow fruit in key Asian markets to neighboring countries like Vietnam and Cambodia as well as Latin American producers, international trade data showed. Trade map data of multilateral International Trade Centre analyzed by the BusinessMirror showed that the Philippines’s market share for bananas in China, Japan, and South Korea has been shrinking in recent years, as domestic exporters have warned. In China, Philippine banana’s market share (in terms of volume) fell to its lowest since 2001 to 45.52 percent from a peak of 91.52 percent in 2007. This is the first time since 2001 that the Philippines did not capture at least half of China’s banana market. Trade map data showed that the Philippines’s share in the Chinese banana market contracted for the third straight year since 2017, when the country held 70 percent of
the market. Trade map data showed that China’s banana imports from the Philippines last year declined 23 percent to 795,477 metric tons (MT), the lowest in three years. On the other hand, China’s banana imports from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos grew exponentially in recent years, based on trade map data. Vietnam’s banana exports to China last year grew by 2 percent to a record-high 282,982 MT, raising its market share to 16 percent from 14 percent. China’s banana imports from Cambodia last year ballooned by 1,277 percent to 241,239 MT while total purchases from Laos expanded by 744 percent to 69,867 MT, trade map data showed. With the hike in exports, Cambodia’s share in China’s banana market grew to 13.8 percent from less than 1 percent while Laos’s share grew to 4 percent from a mere 0.42-percent share. China’s total banana imports last year declined 10 percent to 1.747 million MT from 1.93 million MT in 2019, trade map data showed. See “PHL Bananas,” A2
See “ADB,” A2
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 48.1560
n JAPAN 0.4407 n UK 66.5468 n HK 6.2001 n CHINA 7.4407 n SINGAPORE 36.2075 n AUSTRALIA 37.1427 n EU 57.9365 n SAUDI ARABIA 12.8409
Source: BSP (May 3, 2021)