Stocks, peso rise ahead of BSP policy meet

By Jenni er B. Austria

LOCAL stocks and the peso rose Wednesday as investors positioned ahead of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ policy-setting meeting on Aug 17.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index jumped 74.18 points, or 1.17 percent, to close at 6,410.09, while the broader allshares index rose 25.54 points to 3,426.41.

“The local market bucked the negative performance of most Asian stock indices and brushed aside jitters on Chinese economy and the direction of US monetary policy,” China Bank Capital managing director Juan Paolo Colet said.

Colet said, however, the uptick in the market was mostly a technical rebound, and investors should still be wary about possible selloff.

Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. chief economist Michael Ricafort said the continued growth in overseas Filipino remittances and rise in vehicle sales also boosted the market.

The peso gained Wednesday to close at 56.52 against the US dollar from

56.84 Tuesday. Meanwhile, Asian markets fell Wednesday on concerns about the Chinese economy and after stronger-than-expected US retail sales data increased the likelihood of a further Fed rate hike.

The bounce in July sales, boosted by online spending, showed that consumption has proven more robust than expected, even as the US economy cools.

Comments by Minneapolis Fed president Neel Kashkari also added to concerns that the US central bank is not yet done with rate hikes in its battle to tame inflation.

While inflation may be moving in the right direction, it is still higher than the

Federal Reserve would like and it is too early to declare victory, said Kashkari, a member of the Fed’s interest-rate-setting committee.

“I’m not ready to say that we’re done, but I’m seeing positive signs,” Kashkari told a conference in Minneapolis on Tuesday.

The central banker said he would need to see “convincing evidence” that inflation is coming down to the Fed’s 2.0 percent target and that the central bank was a “long way” from cutting rates.

Minutes from the Fed’s July policy meeting are due to be released later Wednesday which investors will be scouring for insight on the bank’s interest rate outlook.

US stocks retreated on rate concerns and fresh worries over the banking sector after an analyst at ratings agency Fitch warned of the risks of a banking industry downgrade.

The Dow fell 1.0 percent while the broad-based S&P 500 dropped 1.2 percent and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index declined by 1.1 percent.

The overnight declines on Wall Street added to the risk-off sentiment in Asia, with data showing a further fall in Chinese new home prices in July adding to concerns about the world’s second-largest economy, which has stumbled since emerging from its pandemic isolation. With AFP

PARTS of Bulacan and Pampanga have experienced great flood since time immemorial. The overflows have shaped the lives of people living in these Central Luzon plains for ages, and have made the lands fertile.

So when heavy rain submerged several towns of Bulacan and Pampanga two weeks ago, residents of the provinces shrugged it off—it was business as usual.

Two mighty rivers—Pampanga River and Angat River—cross Bulacan and Pampanga and empty into Manila Bay. Commerce and trade had flourished along the banks of the waterways in the olden days. Ferries had transported people and goods to as far as Manila.

Overflows from Pampanga River had inundated several towns in the 50s and 60s until the government built dikes to prevent flooding. The nearby Candaba Swamp receives the excess water and stores it. But the swamp overflows, too, and floods towns along its fringes, as well as municipal and national roads—and expressways.

The 32,000 hectare Candaba swamp had turned briefly into an ocean expanse after heavy monsoon rain poured over Luzon and the rest of the Philippines. The swamp’s water obviously rose high enough to submerge every vegetation thriving in the area.

The water of Angat River also exceeds its banks and floods towns along its route during a strong typhoon and heavy rain. The waterway snakes through the municipalities of Doña Remedios Trinidad, Norzagaray, Angat, Bustos, San Rafael, Baliwag, Plaridel, Pulilan, Calumpit, Paombong and Hagonoy.

The town of Calumpit, as we saw on television and read in newspapers, appeared to have suffered the brunt of the heavy heavy rain. This is not surprising. The Pampanga River and Angat River traverse through Calumpit.

Angat River joins the Pampanga River at Calumpit through Bagbag River, making Calumpit a natural basin for floodwaters coming from Nueva Ecija and Pampanga.

NLEX fix

Overflows from the Candaba Swamp, Pampanga River and Angat River two weeks ago spilled over to several towns. Part of the water seeped into a small portion the North Luzon Expressway, causing a traffic buildup that stretched to as long as 22 kilometers on both sides.

A tiny flooded portion of the NLEX along the San Simon stretch approaching the Tulaoc Bridge had stalled hundreds of vehicles. Heavy rain and river overflows flooded the tiny stretch and rendered it impassable for some small cars and vehicles.

The floodwater had risen to as high as 40 cm or almost 16 inches, forcing traffic at some point to stop. It’s one nightmare for motorists. It took travelers two to six hours to navigate the San Fernando-San Simon stretch on the southbound road, and the Pulilan-San Simon stretch on the other side. The travel time on this road strip normally takes just 10 to 15 minutes.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was alarmed over the highway logjam when he recently visited the flooded areas in Pampanga. And presumably briefed by engineers of NLEX Corp., the operator of the toll road, Marcos surmised that heavy and continuous rain brought about by the two typhoons caused the flooding of a small part of the highway.

Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) president and former Public Works and Highways Secretary Rogelio “Babes” Singson vowed to fix the problem in the San Simon segment to avoid floods in the future.

A 200-meter segment of the expressway under the Tulaoc overpass road (not the Tulaoc river bridge as reported in most of the media) rests on low ground that has to be elevated, according to Singson.

NLEX Corp., a unit of MPTC, committed to fix that San Simon segment, with the Department of Public Works and Highways agreeing to raise Tulaoc overpass road.

NLEX Corp. says it will elevate the San Simon portion by 0.7 meter, or 2.3 feet, and leave a clearance of 4.5 meters for the trucks. The job will require the DPWH to first jack up the overpass road by the same 0.7 meter. NLEX Corp. promised to finish its own repair in three months.

Singson also proposed for the government to build a water impounding facility in the Candaba Swamp to avoid another flooding in the San Simon segment of NLEX. Under his proposal, the government can purchase around 200 hectares of swamp land for the water impounding area to prevent flooding in nearby and low-lying areas.

BEIJING—China said on Wednesday that its economic recovery “will be a bumpy and tortuous process”, but insisted Western critics “will for sure be proven wrong”.

The comments come after a raft of recent figures that have stoked concerns over China’s stuttering post-Covid recovery, and after US President Joe Biden said the country’s mounting economic problems made it a “ticking time bomb”.

“After the smooth transition of the epidemic prevention and control, China’s economic recovery is a wave-like development and a tortuous process, which will inevitably face difficulties and problems,” foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular press conference.

“A number of Western politicians and media have hyped up the periodic problems in China’s post-epidemic economic recovery process. But eventually, they will for sure be proven wrong,” he added.

Retail sales, a key gauge of consumption, grew 2.5 percent year-onyear in July, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Tuesday, down from 3.1 percent in June and falling short of analyst expectations.

The NBS also said it would no longer release age-specific unemployment data, citing the need to “further improve and optimize labor force survey statistics”.

The decision sparked a social media backlash on Tuesday, with internet users accusing the authorities of attempting to hide the extent of rising youth joblessness. AFP

NEDA: Proposed P5.77-t budget to boost growth, address inflation

By Julito G. Rada

NATIONAL Economic and Development Authority Secretary Arsenio

Balisacan said the proposed P5.768trillion national budget for 2024 will support the government’s efforts to address inflation, protect the purchasing power of Filipino families and address constraints to investment and inclusive economic growth.

“We are determined to address the inflation problem, resulting in the easing of both food and non-food inflation. The country’s overall inflation has been decelerating since February 2023, with both food and non-food inflation moderating,” Balisacan said during the national budget briefing at the Senate Committee on Finance on Aug. 15, 2023.

He said despite the moderate 5.3-percent growth in the first half of 2023, risks remained and might aggravate inflation and decrease Filipinos’ purchasing power.

Balisacan said household consumption remained the main driver of economic growth on the expenditure side as it grew 6.0 percent in the first half of 2023, despite domestic and external headwinds.

He said the economic team would focus on and commit to sustaining the downward trend in inflation by intensifying supply-side interventions and demand-side management.

He said the government would implement priority measures ensuring food security and reducing transport, logistics and energy costs to strengthen the purchasing power of Filipinos.

Balisacan said along with other measures to ramp up spending by the public sector, the government was optimistic the Philippine economy would grow by at least 6.6 percent in the second semester of 2023 to achieve the full-year growth target of 6 percent to 7 percent.

SHOPWISE STORE. Shopwise unveils its new home at Gateway Mall 2 Araneta City in Cubao, Quezon City. Attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony are from (left) Vincent Troy Lizo, business director of Energizer; Simplicio Umali, president and CEO of Gardenia; Aleli Arcilla, managing director of Mondelēz International; Cesar Romero, independent director of Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc.; Edgar Allan Caper, chairman and CEO of Caper Group; Margarita Fores, president and CEO of Cibo; Judy Araneta Roxas, vice chairman of Araneta Group; Mar Roxas, former senator; Antonio Mardo, SVP for operations of Araneta City; Rudy Ang, independent director of Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc.; Ermelo Villaroman, VP of United Laboratories Inc.; Yu Chien Lim, general manager of Kimberly-Clark Corp.; and Kendrick Ngo, general manager of Atlas Home Products Inc.