From US Fed rates to China’s global export share: 4 figures shaping markets

The government is launching a national disaster insurance scheme to aid households in quicker recovery from major natural calamities.

China is seeing a fresh fundraising boom for artificial intelligence-powered drug developers, with start-ups including a ByteDance spin-off raising hundreds of millions of dollars this week as investors rush to back domestic challengers to Anthropic and Isomorphic Labs. Anew Labs, a Shanghai-based AI drug discovery firm and former unit of Chinese tech giant ByteDance, has raised US$290 million at a valuation of US$1.5 billion, according to an informed source. Investors included prominent venture...

MANILA, Philippines — The Marcos-led Economy and Development (ED) Council has approved changes to five development projects, including two public-private partnerships (PPPs) for the North-South Commuter Railway (NSCR) and Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA). According to the Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (DepDev), which co-chairs the council, the NSCR revisions cover its parameters, terms and conditions

MANILA, Philippines — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is expected to take a measured approach to raising interest rates despite the US Federal Reserve’s (Fed) first increase since 2023, analysts said, as a more aggressive tightening campaign could unsettle markets and add to financial volatility. Leonardo Lanzona, an economist at Ateneo de Manila University, said the

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has approved more than 26,000 positions in the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), including about 5,703 posts to strengthen operations of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps). The latest staffing action covers 5,711 regular positions in DSWD, of which 5,703 are for the institutionalization

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine government has ditched plans to bid out coal contracts this year as it overhauls awarding rules, a development that further fuels the anxiety gripping Consunji-led Semirara Mining and Power Corp. (SMPC). In an advisory dated Sept. 15, the Department of Energgy (DOE) scrapped the 2026 coal bid round covering three predetermined

MANILA, Philippines — Manila will make a push to anchor Southeast Asia’s $300-billion creative economy when the region’s heads of state troop to the Philippines in November, where it will pitch a center of excellence dedicated to the sector. That center, planned for the 21,000-square-meter Likhang Filipino site in Pasay, would be just the second Asean

Are customers returning because they choose you or because they have not found a reason to leave? A few times each month, I return to the same beef noodle shop in Opus Mall. It is only a kilometer from my home, making it convenient. Sometimes my wife, Chiqui, joins me and we share a simple

MANILA, Philippines — Once seemingly a distant vision of the future, electrified vehicles are becoming an increasingly common sight on Philippine roads, especially among Filipinos who can afford to ditch their fuel-guzzling cars as an oil crisis drives up the cost of getting around. Since the year began, electrified vehicle sales in the country have more

In 2007, I wrote an article entitled “BP 22 Defanged,” where I observed that Batas Pambansa Blg. 22, the Bouncing Checks Law (BP 22), had been weakened by two developments: the Supreme Court’s policy preference for a fine rather than imprisonment (SC Administrative Circular Nos. 12-2000 and 13-01) and decisions requiring the prosecution to prove

Motorists should brace for another round of big-time increases in pump prices to be implemented in the coming week, as the Middle East crisis continues to disrupt the global petroleum market.

Japan is adding a fresh layer of uncertainty to global financial markets by potentially triggering a new bout of turmoil in bond markets and dampening the appetite for risk assets, as Tokyo’s pursuit of bigger government spending stokes concerns about fiscal discipline and sends sovereign bond yields to multi-year highs. The nation’s 10-year bond yield hit 3.03 per cent this week, a level not seen in three decades, while 30-year bond yields traded at 4.1 per cent, also nearing a 30-year high....