The government expects the country’s current account balance to improve to a surplus $2.2 billion next year on the back of the continued outstanding growth in Filipino migrant workers’ remittances.

Norkis Trading & Co. is investing P150 million up to end 2006 to upgrade 50 display centers nationwide to comply with the Yamaha 3S standards as the company gears up for stiff competition in the local motorcycle market.

The Philippines should seize a P21-billion coconut fiber market in China and the Asia Pacific that will have a multi-billion ripple effect on the economy or miss this opportunity within the next two to three years if the technology is captured by a more aggressive competitor.

Business leaders in Mindanao have warned of collapse of the poultry industry in eight months unless government regulators stop the continued entry of cheap chicken legs and thighs allegedly being dumped into the domestic market.

Government will conduct a second share sale for Philippine National Bank in two weeks to raise another P919.17 million.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ Monetary Board approved last week $176.9-million official loans from the Export Credit Guarantee Department of the United Kingdom.

The peso rate closed at P55.94 to the US dollar last Friday at the Philippine Dealing System of the Bankers Association of the Philippines. The weighted average rate stands at P56.052.

The August 2005 issue of Economics for Investment published by American Express describes in detail the ongoing US housing bubble. The rapidly rising prices of housing in the US present an opportunity for Filipino entrepreneurs to tap the 2 million Filipinos or Fil-Americans in the US, many of whom own houses. As their properties rise in value, they can become willing buyers of condominium units or residential houses in the Philippines as well as other consumer products and services, including more frequent visits back to the Philippines, telecom services, media and entertainment, housing decors (including paintings by Filipino artists), etc.

Soaring oil prices may force the governments to revise its economic growth target this year, Economic Planning Secretary Augusto Santos said.

Investors are closely watching the Supreme Court decision on the e-VAT law which is expected to be released this week.

Pacific Plans, Inc. (PPI) said yesterday that talks bogged down between its negotiating panel and its open-ended planholders or the Parents Enabling Parents Coalition (PEPC) because of the hard-line stance of the PEPC.

Telecom regulators threw out the prior operator rule and refused to require new players applying for Third Generation (3G) technology licenses to roll out wirelines in the outrageously expensive way that existing providers did.

Industrial customers with at least 2.0 megawatt (MW) peak demand and efficient load factor would be offered up to P1.10 per kilowatt hour (kWh) reduction in their electricity consumption if the independent power producers of both Manila Electric Company (Meralco) and National Power Corporation (NPC) would be dispatched beyond their contract levels.

As the political crisis drags on, the economy’s prospects for the rest of the year are indeed dismal. Due to weak export performance and fiscal uncertainties, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) forecasts growth to be 4.6 percent this year, slower than 2004’s 6.1 percent. This projection has not yet factored in the impacts of the protracted political crisis, though these are bound to have consequences on the economy.

Investors may now avail of a 24 x 7 information service with the launch of the latest contact center of the Board of Investments via a toll-free customer care system (1-866-312-9830).

NEW YORK, Aug. 28 (AFP) — The dollar recouped early losses and finished with small gains Friday after a late-day drop in oil prices helped offset concerns over a weaker-than-expected US consumer confidence survey.

BEIJING, Aug. 28 (AFP) — A Chinese firm has won a joint contract from the state oil companies of China, the Philippines and Vietnam to search for oil and gas in a disputed area of the South China Sea, state media said Saturday.

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo, Aug. 28 (Reuters) — Former US Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, lavish in his praise for Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, said Friday his successor should be market savvy because large problems may lie ahead.

NEW YORK, Aug. 28 (Reuters) — Oil prices slumped more than a dollar on Friday as dealers bet that strengthening Hurricane Katrina would miss the heart of oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico, home to a quarter of US domestic output.

CANBERRA, Aug. 28 (Reuters) — Welders, plumbers, accountants and nurses — Australia needs you, about 100,000 of you.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) is boosting support to the country’s dollar-earning fruit industry by encouraging land consolidation and clustering to maximize productivity and cut cost in an aim to capture a bigger export market.

The country’s gross international reserves is projected to hit its highest at $18.65 billion next year, official central bank papers said.

The country’s trade deficit is expected to widen to $6.63 billion next year, about 18.6 percent bigger than the government assumptions for 2005, which is $5.58 billion.

Mead Johnson Philippines, local unit of the world’s leading producer of infant and children nutritional products Mead Johnson of US, is targeting to double its business to P12 billion by 2009 as the company anticipates robust growth in the local market.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. said the banking system’s capital health remains adequate and compliant with central bank rules, which directed banks to maintain at least a ten-percent minimum risk-based capital adequacy ratio.

The peso rate closed at P55.94 to the US dollar last Friday at the Philippine Dealing System of the Bankers Association of the Philippines. The weighted average rate stands at P56.052. Financial markets were closed yesterday for a public holiday. Trading resumes today.