Maniolas

MANILA, Philippines – The ratio of government debt to gross domestic product eased further to 39.2 percent last year from 40.6 percent in 2012. In a report, the Department of Finance said the government’s debt to GDP declined to P4.53 billion as of the end of December 2013. Government debt to GDP, which peaked at 78.1 percent during the Asian financial crisis in 1997, has been on a downward trend in the past few years as the Aquino administration stepped up efforts to manage the country’s debt. Generally, government debt as a percent of GDP is used by investors to measure a country’s ability to make future payments on its debt, thus affecting its borrowing costs and government bond yields. This continuing trend of decreasing general government debt-to-GDP ratio shows government’s efforts to ensure sustained fiscal space throughout the medium term. The decrease in government debt level was attributed to the ongoing fiscal consolidation with deficit accounting for only 1.3 percent of the country’s total economic output. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Apart from this, the government took advantage of broadly favorable domestic funding conditions in 2013 to redenominate away from foreign currency debt. Of the P554.7-billion gross borrowing for the year, 94 percent came from the domestic market while the remaining six-percent comprised concessional foreign loans from development partners. This helped reduce the foreign debt component of government debt to only P1.95 trillion or 34.3 percent of the total outstanding debt. A decrease of local Read More …

    MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) – Follow through buying pulled up the stock market today. The composite index Philippines Stock Exchange index rose by 0. 35 percent or 35. 06 points to close Friday’s session at 6, 742.97, while the broader all share index added by 0. 44 percent or 17.84 points to close session at 4, 068.96. Trading volume reached 1.63 billion shares worth P6.5 billion. Advancers beat decliners 112 to 64 while 37 stocks were unchanged. All six counters were up led by the mining and oil sector. “Corporate earnings over the first quarter which are due out in the days and weeks ahead should provide sufficient impetus to boost the measure further north,” Justino Calaycay of Accord Capital Equities Corp. in his daily stock market comment said. The local stock market made a turnaround last Wednesday after falling successively during the past sessions. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Calaycay said, despite a recent visit by the bears, Philippine shares are poised to post its fourth straight monthly gains this year. He said, “the PSEI tested the 6,700-resistance in Wednesday’s trades, consistent with our expectations as momentum from the previous day’s rebound off a four-session slide spilled over.” The analyst warned that the real emerging concern globally however is the Chinese economy. A report on manufacturing activity for April is projected to suggest another pick-up even as Japan’s industrial and South Korea’s factory outputs missed forecast. Stocks in the 30 company index were mostly up. Read More …

Cars drive through a soundproof tunnel covering a highway in Warsaw, Poland. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz) WARSAW, Poland — It has been a time of monumental change for several former Soviet satellite states that joined the European Union 10 years ago: open markets and the free movement of people has spurred economic growth that at times dwarfed worldwide trends. The goods they produced reached millions of new consumers. But it also left some feeling they threw away the yoke of an overbearing Moscow for an unaccountable Brussels. On May 1, 2004, in its biggest single expansion, the EU took in 10 countries with some 74 million people. Seven entrants were either one-time Soviet republics or once part of the Warsaw Pact: the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia. The others were Malta, Cyprus and Slovenia. In countries like Poland, a decade in one of the world’s most exclusive clubs has brought galloping growth, even at time when many other parts of the union were beset by a crippling financial crisis. “Poland and other countries in the region seized this chance offered to them by history and used it well,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said earlier this week as he presented a report on his country’s decade in the EU. EU accession, the report said, helped Poland increase exports to EU partners, brought funds to help modernize roads, bridges, railways and waste-water treatment, and gave greater access for Poles to schools and jobs in more-developed countries to the Read More …

INVESTMENTS approved by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) grew by a quarter in the first four months of the year amid new projects and expansion of existing locators, the agency said late Wednesday.

MANILA, Philippines – State-owned Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) is set to bid out the lease and development of a prime property covering 5,000 square meters (sqm) in the Bonifacio South area in Taguig City. BCDA executive vice president Aileen Zosa said in a statement yesterday the property to be put to auction, the Lawton Corporate Center Lot,  is located along Lawton Avenue and is between the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority and McKinley West, a joint-venture project of BCDA and Megaworld Corp. “We are optimistic and expect this property to draw a lot of interest from top real estate developers because of its strategic location and proximity to various high-end commercial and residential areas like Bonifacio Global City, McKinley, Forbes Park, and Newport City, including the NAIA (Ninoy Aquino International Airport) III,” she said. She added that the plan to widen Lawton Avenue from the existing dual two lane road to a dual three lane road to address the increased traffic volume would augur well for the planned development in the Lawton Corporate Center Lot. BCDA business development manager Arrey Perez said the firm is finalizing the Terms of Reference and other bid documents for the property. “We plan to officially start the public bidding process by the first or second week of May,” he said. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 He said an invitation for the bidding of the property would be published in newspapers. The BCDA plans to lease the property Read More …