Fitch outlook a vote of confidence in PH IN BRIEF

benchmark interest rates at 6.25 percent, calling it a “prudent pause” that took into account the recent downward trajectory of inflation since it peaked at 8.7 percent in January 2023.

Inflation settled at 8.6 percent in February, 7.6 percent in March and 6.6 percent in April.

Fitch acknowledged the credibility of the central bank’s inflation-targeting framework and flexible exchange rate regime. “Last year’s interventions to mitigate peso volatility have been reversed. Monetary financing to the government during the pandemic was more limited and was reversed more quickly than in some peers,” Fitch said.

Villar’s listed companies

registered profits in Q1

ALLHOME Corp. and AllDay Marts Inc., two of the Villar Group’s listed companies, returned to profitability in the first quarter of the year.

AllHome said in a disclosure to the stock exchange Tuesday it booked a first-quarter net income of P212 million, a turnaround from the P27.9-million net loss it reported in the same period last year despite lower revenues.