Agustin, Eunice G.

BSA-IA

NEWS UPDATES
NOVEMBER 28, 2018

(1) Valenzuela Market is already cashless

One market in Valenzuela City offers a high-tech way of paying goods (fruits, vegetables,
meats etc). According to Bettina Magsaysay people there can now already pay without
any cash instead they can use a card.

(2) RCBC offers Online Exchange for frequent Travellers

Long queues are one of the problems when clients exchange their pesos or buy foreign
currencies, that’s why the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp said that they can already pay
it through online platform using the link www.rcbconlinebanking.com.
Also, with this online platform frequent travellers can now secure currencies ahead of
time like US Dollar, Euro, Pound, Yen, Canadian Dollar, Hong Kong Dollar etc. as stated
by the RCBC.
Pre-ordered notes can also be picked up any RCBC Branch.

(3) PH meet deficit Target, ‘First Time in recent history’, says Dominguez
According to Finance Secretary, Carlos Dominguez, it is ‘first time in the recent history’
that the government will meet its 3% of gross domestic product budget deficit target this
year.
In the business forum of Dominguez in Davao City he told that President Rodrigo is
moving ahead with its spending schedule as he impose his “Build, Build, Build”
infrastructure program.
As supporting detail, he stated that the infrastructure spending in the month of January to
September was already at P 5.71 billion which is 46% higher year-on-year and 65.3%
higher than the last full year of the Aquino Government.
Furthermore he added, “Bad old days of under spending which the critics faulted the
government for, is now over, we are now being faulted for enlarging deficit, when in fact,
we said our deficit will be at 3% of GDP”.

(4) Inflation to ‘taper off’ towards end of 2018: Finance Chief

According to Finance Secretary, Carlos Dominguez, despite the elevated inflation in the
Philippines, the economy of the country is still growing at one of the fastest clips in the
world.
With the decisive response of the government, he said that we can already expect that the
inflation will taper off in the closing months of the year. But even though the inflation
rate of 6.7% in October and other months is still at its highest nearly in a decade
(Philippines Statistics Authority).
(5) Supply of NFA Rice in the Market
As reported by Henry Atuelan, the supply of NFA Rice in the market returns to normal.
After hundreds of imported rice come here in our country, the price of NFA rice will be at
P 27.00 and P 32.00 in all the markets. This is in connection to the last report that there
are not good sales of NFA rice in some markets.
As stated by NFA administrator-in-charge Tomas Escarez, 280,000 sacks of rice is
already received and it was also said that will give 20,000 bags to the retailers instead of
giving 10,000 bags
Escarez added that it is not true that the NFa Rice supply is not enough and he just
imposed the ‘just in time arrival’ to ascertain the quality of the product. “It means kung
ano lang ang kailangan mo na ‘yun lang pararatingin natin para iwasan natin ‘yung mga
nakaraang panahon na maraming bintang sa bigas ng NFA na may amoy, mabaho, may
bukbuk. Kaya kada importation, yung tama lang” Escarez said.
Aside from these the government is expecting another supply of NFA Rice this December
as they imposed the 203,000 metric tons of bidding to government-to-government
scheme of NFA.

(6) Price of canned meat goods got affected in the Rice Tarrification
According to one manufacturer group, they are threatened that the price of the canned
meat goods will increase when the Rice Tarrification Bill (importation of rice goods for
all but just pay 35% of the tariff) will be implemented.
The Philippine Association of Meat Processors Incorporated (PAMPI) already gave
warning to the consumers that they are expecting P 1.50 to P 1.70 increase in every
canned meat goods because as stated, mechanically deboned meat is included in increase
of tariff (MDM).
As explained by the concerned group, MDM is connected to the rice tarrification because
the World Trade Organization stated it so.
PAMPI Spokesman said, “Ang P 17.00 ngayon we will have to add P 1.50 to P 1.70 per
can of meatloaf, beef loaf di na kaya ng tao yan, prices would go up by 25%” and Trade
Secretary Ramon Lopez sended a text message saying “If we increase the tariff rates, it
will push up prices and this is against the directive of President Duterte to keep costs and
prices low”.