Central bank: Pera Contributions up 30%

PERSONAL Equity and Retirement Account (Pera) contributions reached P329.55 million at end-2022, a 30 percent increase from the P253.35 million recorded a year earlier. The number of Pera contributors, on the other hand, increased by 16 percent to 5,100 in 2022 from 4,382 in 2021. About 3,600 employed individuals had contributed P223.71 million to the […]

PHL posts ​1,101 COVID cases in the past week 

THE PHILIPPINES posted ​1,101 coronavirus infections in the past week, with the daily average 9% lower than a week earlier, according to the Department of Health (DoH). Of the new cases, ​two were severe and critical, it said in a bulletin on Monday.   The DoH said it had verified 98 more deaths from Feb ​6 […]

Over 5K in Central Visayas receive livelihood aid from Dole

THE Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) 7 provided livelihood assistance to over 5,000 individuals in 2022, up 56 percent from the 3,618 beneficiaries it assisted in 2021. Last year’s 5,629 beneficiaries received a total of P78.8 million worth of livelihood assistance from the labor department. Cebu Province topped the list with 1,916 beneficiaries benefitting […]

FDI net inflows drop to $793M in November

By Keisha B. Ta-asan, Reporter FOREIGN DIRECT investments (FDI) in the Philippines plummeted 43.6% in November to $793 million and 13.4% to $8.43 billion in the 11-month period, suggesting a weaker global economic outlook. FDI net inflows also fell 14.1% from the $923-million inflows in October, data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) […]

PHL motor vehicle production up 10% in 2022

VEHICLE production in the Philippines rose 10% in 2022, lagging growth rates posted elsewhere in Southeast Asia, according to the ASEAN Automotive Federation (AAF). In a report uploaded on its website, the AAF said Philippine motor vehicle output rose to 92,223 units in 2022. The growth leaders in the region were Myanmar (62.3%), Malaysia (45.8%), […]

Nearly a third of PH population ‘lifetime migrants’

ABOUT three in every 10 persons in the Philippines aged at least five years old are lifetime migrants, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). That’s a whopping 29.87 million or 30.6 percent of the 97.60 million household population aged five years and over in the year 2020, the PSA said in a report released […]

Aneka Jaringan Posts Revenue of RM53 Million in 1Q FY2023

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 19, 2023 – (ACN Newswire via SEAPRWire.com) – Aneka Jaringan Holdings Berhad (Bursa: ANEKA, 0226), a basement and foundation construction specialist, today announced that the Group recorded a 26.92% gain in revenue to RM52.85 million for the first quarter ended 30 November 2022 (1Q FYE2023) compared with RM41.64 million in the corresponding […]

8 airports have funding in 2023 budget — DBM

THIS YEAR’s budget has guaranteed funds for eight airports in the country, including a new one in Zamboanga City that will replace the existing facility, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) announced on Thursday.    “This budgetary allocation seeks to support the construction, rehabilitation, and improvement of the country’s transportation infrastructure, particularly in the aviation […]

Internal migrants estimated at over 30% of PHL population

SOME 30.6% of the Philippine population consists of internal migrants, defined as those currently living in jurisdictions where they were not born, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said. According to the PSA’s 2020 Census of Population and Housing, the category, which the PSA calls “lifetime migrants,” numbered 29.87 million. Of the so-called lifetime migrants, 21.48 […]

BI: Arrivals in PH up 337%

THINGS are slowly improving on the travel front after the Bureau of Immigration (BI) announced that arrivals in the year 2022 had more than quadrupled from the very low 2021 level. In a statement, BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco said immigration officers processed 6,125,841 arrivals in 2022. This is up 337 percent from the 1.4 million […]

November jobless rate falls to lowest since 2005

The Philippines’ unemployment rate dropped to its lowest level in over 17 years in November, as firms hired more workers ahead of the holiday season. Preliminary data from the Philippine Statistics Authority’s Labor Force Survey (LFS) released on Friday showed the unemployment rate further eased to 4.2% in November. This was lower than the 4.5% […]

With few entry tests, Southeast Asia may gain most from China’s travel revival

SINGAPORE – Southeast Asia’s tourist economies are set to be leading beneficiaries of China’s scrapping of travel bans as they have steered clear of the COVID-19 tests before entry that Europe, Japan and the United States have imposed on Chinese visitors. Even as the virus tears through its 1.4 billion people, the world’s second largest economy is opening its borders from Sunday, a move that promises to unleash a […]

Seeing Abu Dhabi’s Louvre up close

One cannot help but be curious about the Louvre in Abu Dhabi when you know that 400 million euros was paid to the French government, primarily for the use of the name for 30 years, in an agreement signed in 2007. Last year, a 10-year extension was obtained for an additional cost of 165 million […]

Foreign tourists in PH reach 2.65M in 2022

INTERNATIONAL tourist arrivals in the Philippines soared to 2.65 million in 2022, breaching the 1.7 million target, the Department of Tourism (DOT) announced Tuesday. The visitor count as of Dec. 31, 2022 translates to P208.96 billion or US$3.68 billion in tourism revenue, a 2,465.75 percent increase from the same period last year. The holiday season […]

Philippine international arrivals hit 2.65M in 2022

THE Department of Tourism (DoT) said the Philippines logged 2.65 million international arrivals in 2022, beating the 1.7 million target and raising hopes for the arrivals goal to be met in 2023. In a statement on Monday, the DoT said that of the 2.65 million international arrivals in 2022, 2.02 million were foreigners while 628,445 […]

BSP reports $489M capital inflows in Nov

FOREIGN investment transactions registered with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) through banks in November 2022 recorded net inflows of $489 million or more than five times larger compared to the $83 million net inflows recorded a year ago. The gain resulted from the $1.1 billion gross inflows and $566 million gross outflows for the […]