THE worst is over for Philippine banks.
The banking industry’s performance in the first quarter of 2009 was impressive indeed, with a few major players posting double-digit growth rates in revenues and profits.
Traditional revenue streams, like interest income and fees and commissions, all posted significant increases.
There was a drop in profits in 2009, though. The main [...]

THERE are two types of foreign investments that the Philippine economy receives which would be a good gauge of how confident investors are with respect to doing business in our country. These are foreign direct investment (FDI), which are long-term capital, and “hot money” or portfolio investments, which are largely short-term investments in the stock [...]

THE economic growth of 0.4 percent in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) during the first quarter of 2009 was indeed an unpleasant surprise for business.
From the perspective of business, it was really unpleasant. Many companies were reporting good results, including double-digit growth rates.
From the perspective of the government, the decade-low GDP growth rate was [...]

I was right. I made an observation in a previous column about the absence of visible signs that the government was implementing stimulus spending. That would have meant incremental expenditures over and above the regular capital expenditures.
The official report on the performance of the economy during the first quarter of 2009 confirmed my observation. Our [...]

THE awesome global economic crisis presents to the new generation of entrepreneurs—the new tycoons, if you will—a unique challenge.
Yes, I mean those now being groomed by their parents, who belong to the old generation of entrepreneurs, for the day when they retire and turn over the helm to their children.
The same crisis that started in [...]

I DISCUSSED in my last column about the ongoing expansion activities—either by organic growth or through acquisition—of the major players in the Philippine economy. They are actively doing this while their much bigger peers in the developed countries are collapsing or downsizing because of the global crisis.
The global economic crisis has quite remarkably made the [...]

THE major players in the Philippine industries have taken two different strategies to expand and sustain growth amid the global economic and financial crisis. These slowed down the country’s economic growth last year, after recording a three-decade high of 7.2-percent growth in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2007.
It’s a good thing that some [...]

I have always been confident that overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) will play a big role in carrying the Philippine economy through the turbulent global recession. And I am optimistic we will not see any dramatic drop in their remittances at all.
So I was glad to read reports that the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), which [...]

SIX months ago, local and international economic analysts predicted that the Philippines’ growth rate would be only 1.8 in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) for 2009.
Less than two weeks ago, I told a friend that “soon you’ll hear people talking about a zero-growth rate,” in contrast to forecasts by multilateral agencies, economists and analysts, [...]

WHEN the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), composed of 30 Western countries led by the United States, included the Philippines on its blacklist of tax havens early this month, I frankly considered that move as insulting to us as a nation.
And when, a few days after our country was removed from the list, [...]