Around the World
US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson says that the US is not in a recession, but is headed for slower growth. Bear Stearnes chief executive James Cayne steps down as CEO, but retains chairmanship.
Eurozone consumer spending falls for the second month in a row despite German strength. Inflation pressures remain a concern.
Japanese stocks continue to dive on weakness in the US economy. Futures are pointing down.
Australia’s retail sales accelerated for the sixth straight month in November 2007 on the back of a hiring boom. Inflation is already above the RBA’s 3 percent ceiling. Australia’s trade gap is likely to have narrowed in November 2007 as commodity prices surge.
Indiabulls Financial Services Ltd., backed by billionaire Lakshmi Mittal is gunning for a place in the top 5 among India’s funds by 2010. The Bloomberg article is here.
The Philippines
December inflation averaged 3.9 percent, up from 3.2 in the previous month. This brings the average for 2007 to 2.8 percent. The inflation target for 2007 was 4.0-5.0 percent.
The PSE closed higher yesterday on bargain-hunting. Colliers reports that office space rents may rise by 15 percent in 2008, driven by BPO demand and low vacancy rates. In 2007, office rents increased by 26 percent. Here is the article from BWO.
The Philippine government has announced that it will reimpose a scheme to cut oil tariffs, while rejecting proposals to suspend EVAT on oil and abandon the Oil Deregulation Law.
Asia United Bank (AUB) is taking advantage of the recent BSP decision to relax branching restrictions. AUB plans to open 12 new branches in the north and south this year.
Tidbits
Honesto General rants that results published by public opinion survey firms such as Social Weather Stations (SWS) and Pulse Asia (PA) are statistically bogus. For a country of 87 million (90 million now?), inferring anything about the entire country from a sample of 1,200 people that is further divided into socio-economic class is invalid.
Electronic bank statements are safe and efficient. Sign up for them to get your statements emailed, avoid clutter and help the environment. Just follow the… following (standard) precautions:
- Update your anti-virus software
- Install a firewall
- Don’t access financial information on public computers
- Check the web address you’re visiting to make sure it’s a real site
- Don’t open attachments to emails from people you don’t know
