The Aquino administration is eyeing the privatization of sequestered television stations RPN 9 and IBC 13 after two years at the earliest, Presidential Communications Office (PCO) secretary Herminio Coloma said Sunday.
Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has listed the Philippines in the list of “uncooperative tax havens”, other countries named are Uruguay, Costa Rica and the Malaysian territory of Labuan as the worst offenders, saying they had refused to adopt new rules on financial openness.
Sony is cutting the price of its PlayStation 2 console by almost 25 percent in both Europe and North America, the company said Tuesday.
The console, which has just begun its tenth year on retail shelves, will cost €100 (US$133) and US$100 from Wednesday. It previously cost €130 and US$130.
Sony has sold more than 136 million of the consoles since it first launched on March 4, 2000, in Japan. It went on sale in Europe and North America in November of the same year.
World Bank said remittances by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are likely to post a modest drop this year because of job lay offs, as it cited a larger basis for the projected remittances that included non-cash flows.
Dilip Ratha, the banka’s lead economist for Migration and Remittance Team, said remittances could drop by 4 percent this year from its estimate of $18 billion in total remittances last year. The World Bank also computed the amount of remittances in cash and non-cash flows, including the balikbayan box.
Globe Telecom launches it’s WiMax (worldwide interoperability for microwave access) service, it will be the first in the Philippines.
WiMax is a standards-based technology designed to enable the deployment of wireless broadband access as a cost-efficient alternative to cable and wired broadband DSL.
This new technology also aims to improve reach since it can cover distances greater than those covered by other wireless technologies like WiFi, CDMA, or 3G.
Stock market investors on Monday dumped shares Of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), dragging down the market index by 4.7 percent, on concerns that the country’s most valuable company may jack up debts or even tighten future cash dividends with its bold entry into power retailer Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).
Also on Monday, Moody’s Investors Service revised the status of PLDT’s Baa2 local-currency debt issuer rating from review for possible upgrade to review with direction uncertain. Moody’s also affirmed PLDT’s Ba2/positive foreign-currency bond rating.
Banco de Oro Unibank (BDO) (BDO.PS), the Philippines’ biggest bank, said on Monday it had raised 3 billion pesos ($62 million) from an offer of unsecured subordinated debt eligible as lower Tier 2 capital.
With the offer, the bank completed its one-year capital raising programme, acquiring a total of 13 billion pesos in fresh funds via tier 2 notes aimed at funding its expansion.
BDO, the country’s largest bank by market capitalisation and assets, said it increased the size of the 10-year notes issue to 3 billion pesos from 2.5 billion pesos.
The nationwide inflation rate fell to its lowest level in nine months at eight percent in December due largely to the sharp drop in fuel prices, the National Statistics Office (NSO) reported yesterday.
As a result of the softening in prices, monetary officials said they intend to seek opportunities for policy easing this year.
“As inflation risks, particularly from food and fuel prices continue the recede, we will carefully consider opportunities for monetary easing, mindful of potential tightening financial condition,” Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. said in a dialogue with the Tuesday Club at the Edsa Shangri-La Hotel yesterday where the BSP governor is the club’s traditional guest of honor in its first breakfast meeting for the year.
The peso, which has fallen 13 percent against the dollar this year, is widely expected to decline further in 2009 due to the impact a worsening global economic downturn will have on foreign investments, exports and overseas remittances.
The peso ended this year at 47.52 to the dollar, 6.24 weaker than at end-2007, eroding a 19-percent gain it posted last year.
Even though the United States is in the grip of recession, the dollar has entered a long-term up-cycle, thus becoming a haven for risk-averse global investors, local currency dealers said.
Industry experts from the business process outsourcing (BPO) believe that Barack Obama’s victory in the US presidential election will have no major direct impact in the growth of the industry in the Philippines.
Oscar Sañez, chief executive officer of the Business Process Association of the Philippines (BPAP), said that victory of Obama will have only little effect on the BPO industry in the country.
Obama has expressed during the campaign that he is not in favor of outsourcing jobs to other countries. His campaign website (www.barackobama.com) said that Obama and his vice-president-elect Joe Biden would end tax breaks for companies that send job overseas.
