Marcos’ job creation drive boosts employment rate - ECOP

A business leader believes that President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s push to open the economy and create jobs pushed the country’s employment rate to pick up.

Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) President Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr. said this after noting that the recovery of the country’s micro industries helped fuel the economy’s growth, especially with 65 percent of employment in the Philippines coming from this industry.

He added that inflation remains manageable, and the country remains on the path to economic recovery.

“Well, I will not say out of control iyong inflation, medyo mataas lang pero iyan naman ay manageable pa iyan (I will not say that the inflation is out of control. It’s a bit high but still manageable),” Ortiz-Luis said.

“Talaga namang on track tayo dahil tuluy-tuloy naman ang paglago ng ating ekonomiya (We’re still on-track because the economy keeps growing),” he added.

Based on the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) preliminary results of its latest labor force survey released on Wednesday, the country’s unemployment rate dropped to 4.5 percent in October, lower than the 7.4 percent in October 2021 and 5 percent in September.

President Marcos had said he saw bright prospects for the country’s economy after the unemployment rate dipped in October.

The ECOP president, for his part, cited the need to intensify efforts to address skills mismatch and attract investments that will generate more jobs.

According to Ortiz-Luis, Marcos’ recent travels paved the way to woo more investors and drive critical investments in various sectors.

“Lahat ng mga pledges ay hindi naman nagkakatotoo iyong iba, pero marami rin ay talagang natutuloy at marami riyan ang nagki-create ng jobs (Some pledges are not fulfilled but there’s still a lot that push through and create jobs),” he said.

“Iyong tiwala ng mga international investments sa atin ay tumataas (The trust of foreign investors in us also increased),” he added.

Source: Manila Bulletin

OFWs again keen on real estate

Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are again keen on using their hard-earned money to lease a house or purchase a permanent dwelling for their families back home, according to a study.

Lamudi’s study titled “The Outlook Quarterly: A Wrap-Up of the Philippine Housing Market in 2Q2022 (Second Quarter of 2022),” showed the reemergence of this trend since the last quarter of 2021 as the economy has reopened and the situation gradually has returned to normalcy.

Of all the OFWs looking for homes, those based in Singapore were most interested in condominiums and houses for sale.

Condominiums and apartments accounted for the biggest share of leads on Lamudi, with listings in lower price categories attracting more than a third of total inquiries for both potential buyers and renters. Over half of the listed residential properties for sale on the platform were priced P6 million and below.

In terms of commercial properties for rent, majority of the leads came from the world’s largest service outsourcers, such as the United States and Australia, from April to June.

Even though Singapore’s property hunters topped the residential segment, its vibrant start-up scene and multinational-locators, together with Japan, an established source of industrial, retail and education interest in the country, have both entrepreneurs and professionals wanting to invest in commercial real estate market as well.

Other interested foreign tenants for commercial spaces here were Canadians, South Koreans, British and United Arab Emirate nationals.

They prioritized office and retail spaces the most, followed by related commercial properties such as buildings, warehouses, service offices, and co-working spaces.

“These trends all tell the same story: that the Philippines is headed towards greater heights as the economy reopens in the post-Covid era. More and more developed countries are undoubtedly setting their sights on building a Philippine base, which means that the domestic real estate market is expected to be busier than ever,” said Lamudi Philippines Country Head Anurag Verma.

Location-wise, OFWs based in the Middle East—Dubai, Doha, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi—and Singapore showed high interest for properties in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon) during the period in review.

Most of Filipino migrant workers come from this region, with half of them bound to central Arab areas, per 2020 data of the Philippine Statistics Authority. Majority of them originated from Cavite and Batangas.

Houses and then land gained most pageviews from Middle East-based property seekers. Close to 50 percent of all leads from East Asian property seekers were for properties located in the National Capital Region (NCR).

Other than cities in NCR, provincial areas, such as the hilly Baguio and Tagaytay, agricultural town of Naguilian, La Union and coastal Lapu-lapu, Cebu were the preferred destinations for OFW and North and South American markets for both leisure and retirement. Sub-categories such as house and lot, townhouse, ‘residential lot, beach house and agricultural lot attracted foreign property seekers.

Metro Manila cities, particularly Taguig, Makati and Quezon City, followed by Cebu and Cavite got most of the leads from South and Southeast Asian (excluding the Philippines) countries. Expats and students from these neighboring countries may be looking into housing as they take on new onsite work or start a new school year here.

Meanwhile, Makati was the most searched by Europe-based seekers looking into the Philippines. This may be driven by expats and investors from the Western continent searching for accommodations as well as interest from the OFWs working there.

Source: Business Mirror

Mapped: Which Countries Have the Highest Inflation?

Mapped: Which Countries Have the Highest Inflation Rate?

Inflation is surging nearly everywhere in 2022.

Geopolitical tensions are triggering high energy costs, while supply-side disruptions are also distorting consumer prices. The end result is that almost half of countries worldwide are seeing double-digit inflation rates or higher.

With new macroeconomic forces shaping the global economy, the above infographic shows countries with the highest inflation rates, using data from Trading Economics.

Double-Digit Inflation in 2022

As the table below shows, countless countries are navigating record-high levels of inflation. Some are even facing triple-digit inflation rates. Globally, Zimbabwe, Lebanon, and Venezuela have the highest rates in the world.

As price pressures mount, 33 central banks tracked by the Bank of International Settlements (out of a total of 38) have raised interest rates this year. These coordinated rate hikes are the largest in two decades, representing an end to an era of rock-bottom interest rates.

Going into 2023, central banks could continue this shift towards hawkish policies as inflation remains aggressively high.

The Role of Energy Prices

Driven by the war in Ukraine, energy inflation is pushing up the cost of living around the world.

Since October 2020, an index of global energy prices—made up of crude oil, natural gas, coal, and propane—has increased drastically.

Compared to the 2021 average, natural gas prices in Europe are up sixfold. Real European household electricity prices are up 78% and gas prices have climbed even more, at 144% compared to 20-year averages.

Amid global competition for liquefied natural gas supplies, price pressures are likely to stay high, even though they have fallen recently. Other harmful consequences of the energy shock include price volatility, economic strain, and energy shortages.

“The world is in the midst of the first truly global energy crisis, with impacts that will be felt for years to come”.

-Fatih Birol, executive director of the IEA

Double-Digit Inflation: Will it Last?

If history is an example, taming rising prices could take at least a few years yet.

Take the sky-high inflation of the 1980s. Italy, which managed to combat inflation faster than most countries, brought down inflation from 22% in 1980 to 4% in 1986.

If global inflation rates, which hover around 9.8% in 2022, were to follow this course, it would take at least until 2025 for levels to reach the 2% target.

It’s worth noting that inflation was also highly volatile over this decade. Consider how inflation fell across much of the rich world by 1981 but shot up again in 1987 amid higher energy prices. Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell spoke to the volatility of inflation at their November meeting, indicating that high inflation has a chance of following a period of low inflation.

While the Federal Reserve projects U.S. inflation to fall closer to its 2% target by 2024, the road ahead could still get a lot bumpier between now and then.

Source: Visual Capitalist