March 18, 2021 | 12:34 am Advertisement
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The government’s plan to acquire more coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines this year and the next few years should lead to the widening of the budget gap, as the government borrows more. PHILIPPINE STAR/ MICHAEL VARCAS
THE COUNTRY’S budget balance swung to a deficit in January, as tax collections continued to drop and spending remained muted amid the pandemic, the Treasury reported on Wednesday.
Preliminary data from the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) showed the fiscal gap stood at a P14-billion deficit in January, reversing the P23-billion surplus in January 2020.
Compared with December, the January deficit was significantly narrower than the P302.6-billion fiscal gap in December.
March 18, 2021 | 12:05 am Advertisement
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TERM DEPOSITS auctioned off by the central bank fetched higher yields on Wednesday to track US Treasuries. BW FILE PHOTO
YIELDS ON the central bank’s term deposits continued to pick up on Wednesday despite higher bids, reflecting the uptrend in the rates of benchmark US government bonds.
Bids for the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) term deposit facility (TDF) reached P653.865 billion on Wednesday, higher than the P480 billion on the auction block as well as the P523.769 billion in tenders logged in the previous offering.
Broken down, demand for the seven-day papers amounted to P181.075 billion, above the P140 billion auctioned off by the central bank and the P145.424 billion in bids seen a week ago.
Author Ranina Sanglap
The Philippines may see its first purely digital banks by 2022 as the central bank prepares to issue them licenses. But the challenge for the neobanks will be to build trust and convince customers in a country with low financial services penetration and a preference for face-to-face interaction, analysts say.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in November 2020 approved a new license category for digital banks. The central bank has received two applications as of February one from a new player and the other from an existing bank to convert into a digital bank, BSP s Deputy Governor Chuchi Fonacier told S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Peso declines vs dollar on cautious trade ahead of Fed bworldonline.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bworldonline.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
By JON VIKTOR D. CABUENAS, GMA News
Published March 15, 2021 6:36pm The Philippine peso hovered around 4-month lows on Monday, dragged by the recent surge in COVID-19 cases and the reimposition of restrictions across Metro Manila. The local currency lost 8.5 centavos to close at P48.54:$1 from last Friday s P48.455:$1. The health department on Monday reported 5,404 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, the highest reported daily tally in seven months, after recording more than 4,000 new infections in the past few days. The latest figures brought the Philippines total confirmed cases to 626,893. This includes 53,479 active cases; 560,577 recoveries; and 12,837 deaths. The peso exchange rate closed weaker today. after the latest increase in new COVID-19 cases to new seven-month highs and the start of the two-week curfew in Metro Manila, Michael Ricafort, chief economist at the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC), said in a mobile message.